Stephen is a creative, dedicated, and passionate therapist with a background in behavioral health, education, and social services. He has wide-ranging experience working with people in all stages of life, helping them to become happier and healthier as individuals, in couples, and in families.  He integrates art therapy to enable couples to connect emotionally and intimately. 

Strength, resiliency, and connection are essential elements of a lasting, satisfying, and harmonious relationship.  Stephen believes that these are the building blocks for healing, forgiveness, and positive progress.  He provides a safe, nurturing, and judgement-free space where couples can explore resolutions to a current problem, prevent an exacerbation of problems, or simply provide support for a couple experiencing a period of transition or increased stress.  

Stephen facilitates the discovery of fresh energy to create a healthy emotional connection.  His approach is nurturing, thus enabling clients to engage with the healing power of their own personal symbols. This entails fostering self-agency to empower them to leverage their positive qualities in order to become more free, powerful, happy, and healthy.

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In addition to strength-based work, his therapeutic approach is trauma-informed in order to support clients in their process of trauma integration and healing. He provides treatment that activates the body, mind, and brain with expressive methods that are engaging and empowering.

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Stephen has worked with people of diverse culture and ethnicity.  He brings the ability to relate to clients with authentic knowledge and sensitivity to culture and ethnicity. In particular, he has experience with interracial couples.

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NEURODIVERSE RELATIONSHIPS:

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Expertise

Stephen offers expertise in supporting your unique neurodiverse relationship. He empathizes with the often-challenging themes that give rise to relationship stress: the dearth of emotional reciprocity and the challenge of maintaining meaningful balance with your partner and others in your life. Stephen provides a safe space enable you to share your feelings and expectations. He believes the willingness to improve communication and to be open to be open to managing expectations and finding solutions becomes the foundation of increasing trust in your relationship.

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Compassion and Insight

Stephen presents a compassionate and understanding approach to neurodiverse couples’ therapy. This enables you both to gain fresh understanding and perspective. He helps nurture awareness in each partner of their own individual patterns, from these insights he invites adjustments to enable both partners to get more out of their relationship.

The neurotypical partner gains insight that the neurodiverse retreat into safe behaviors and routine, is not a rejection but is a consequence of the Defense Mode. The defense mode being one hallmark coping strategy of the neurodiverse individual. Stephen supports the neurotypical partner process feelings of abandonment, frustration, and grief. Catharsis and forgiveness in both partners enable openness to positive feelings and increased self-esteem.

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Making Sense of Neurodiversity

It is important that you both make sense of your neurodivergent partner’s behaviors. You may have pondered why anxiety can be a problem for your neurodiverse partner. Stephen shows you how anxiety can lead to impulsivity, melt-downs, rage, and withdrawal, all negatively impacting the relationship. More importantly he supports you both to strategize, problem-solve and better connect to make progress on the challenges to your special relationship.

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Fresh Perspectives

By offering a fresh perspective, Stephen helps you both positively revaluate your relationship. He offers structure and effective tools to use, this enables reengagement and motivation for your partnership. Such understanding enables collaboration to use your combined strengths and resilience. Stephen believes that neurodiverse people have numerous assets such as loyalty, honesty, intelligence, strong values, the ability to work hard, generosity, and humor. He is passionate in using these qualities to bring you closer together.

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Communication

Stephen supports effective communication and step-by-step actions to grow the loving connection you both deserve. This sensitive, nurturing process, enables neurodiverse individuals and their partners to feel supported in dealing with their communication challenges. The discontent in neurodiverse partnerships that comes from the lack of initiation of connection will be assuaged by enabling you both to safely verbalize your needs. Stephen’s will work with you on a relationship schedule. Your relationship schedule will ensure quality time is set aside to meet both your needs.

Other areas of focus (in addition to Neurodiversity):​

• Children

• Couples’ relationships

• Separation and Divorce

• Parent and child conflicts

• Depression and Anxiety

• Trauma and Stress

• Grief and loss and shame

• Forgiveness and Self-forgiveness 
  

Modalities:

Internal Family Systems, Emotion Focused Therapy, Jungian Therapy, Humanistic Therapy, Trauma-Informed Therapy

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Clients: 

Couples and Families, Adults, Adolescents, Children

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License:

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT #149714

Supervised by Dr. Harry Motro, LMFT #53452

Employed by New Path Couples Therapy Inc.