Anna Braverman

The goal of therapy, as I see it, is not to make a person perfectly happy or to get rid of all pain in life – that would be unrealistic and also not consistent with being a vibrant, thinking and feeling human. However, I do believe that it is the work of therapy to help people experience their lives as meaningful, to help people move in the direction of achieving their goals in life, to live a life where they are able to feel at peace with themselves, forgive themselves, treat themselves with care and respect, and give themselves permission to rest and experience joy.

In order to do that we often have to understand the forces that are currently keeping someone stuck in patterns that are painful and unhelpful. Often this has to do with a lack of internal freedom - people often feel that they have no choice but to think and feel as they do now, but this is very rarely true. It becomes our work in therapy to uncover those degrees of freedom that a person actually possesses but has been thus far unaware of.

In order for this exploration to be possible, first and foremost a person has to feel safe in our therapy relationship. It is my goal to create an atmosphere of safety, curiosity and playfulness. An atmosphere where a person can feel free from judgement and open to exploring parts of self that have thus far remained hidden. We work together to develop acceptance and compassion for who someone is at present and a sense of hope and excitement about the ways in which they can grow and evolve.