INTRODUCTION Hello my name is Eric Howell, and I want to welcome you to Better Help. I am a Marriage and Family Therapist, and have been licensed in California for more than 15 years. I am originally from the North East. I am third generation in this country, of a mixed European decent. I moved to California when I was 25. I have worked in a variety of settings, including: Non Profit, Government, and Private Practice. Whether you are a first timer to therapy, or you have been a client before, I want to acknowledge and congratulate that you took the first step in reaching out to get some help today. This is a big first step. _________________________________________________________________ SPECIALTIES • Depression • Anxiety • Life Changes • Grief and Loss • Self Esteem • Relationship Issues • Family Stressors/conflicts • Anger Management • Mood Swings • Sexual Orientation • Communication • Having a family member with a Chronic and Persistent Mental Illness ALSO EXPERIENCE IN: Substance Abuse, addiction, trauma and abuse, multi-cultural experiences, children to older adult, aging, bipolar disorder, co-dependency, career difficulties, intimacy issues, blockage to creativity. CLINICAL APPROACHES: Cognitive Behavioral, Gestalt, Humanistic, Attachment Based Theory, Psychodynamic, Narrative Therapy, Post-Modern Theory, and Solution Focused. WHO AM I -PERSONAL BACKGROUND Because choosing who you pick for a therapist is essential, I have decided to share some personal information about myself along with how I approach therapy. Although it is lengthy, I believe it will be helpful for you in choosing if I will be the right therapist for you. So with that said, I came to becoming a therapist after having such a positive experience with therapy myself. So, I come to you not only as an experienced therapist, but with a deep understanding of what it is like to be a client. I was approaching 30, when I was feeling as if my life was no longer working for me, and I was deeply unhappy. I made a commitment to attending weekly individual therapy sessions to get help. The safe space my therapist created was critical in helping me explore and understand the factors that were contributing to my unhappiness. It allowed me to look inward and reflect on painful experiences that have happened and shaped me. Revisiting these experiences in a safe supportive environment helped me better understand how they impacted me, and incorporate them into my being. As this process progressed, my therapist provided me with psychoeducation, giving me new coping skills, improving my communication, and seeing things with a new and different perspective allowing further change to happen. I started feeling as if I could direct my own life, and not have life directing me. I was brought up Catholic, but do not see myself as a religious person, but have a deeply spiritual understanding of the world. This can easily be brought to our sessions if it will be of use to your experience. I also have the unique experience of growing up with close family members who have been diagnosed with serious mental health disorders, such as Schizophrenia. With this comes unique challenges for all members of a family system. Understanding how this has impacted you, navigating and managing your relationship with these family members can be complicated and stressful, as well extremely rewarding. I have a depth of knowledge and experience with multiple areas within Mental Health, including Chronic and Persistent Mental Disorders, if this is something that has impacted your life either with a family member or close friends we can spend time understanding its impact. I am a gay male and have had training and experience at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles. This impacts how I see the world and my perspective. Although, I see myself as an all-inclusive therapist this is a self-disclosure to assist with you choosing the right therapist for you. _______________________________________________________________ ELEMENTS OF MY PERSONAL STYLE OF INDIVIDUAL THERAPY Balance and creating Meaning are critical in being a whole fulfilled being. How we blend and focus our time is important in shaping your mood and overall mental health. Exploring how you currently spend your time with the mixture of family, intimacy, career/work, social, community, serving others, spiritual, being in nature, and engaging in creative endeavors will be part of our work together. One of the key ingredients to a successful experience in therapy is your experience with your therapist. It will be my focus and goal to offer you a warm friendly environment free of judgement. This will allow the space for you to understand your unique life experience and how it has shaped you. I do believe unraveling how culture, gender, gender preference, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and family dynamics impact you and your world. I believe it is an important part of understanding who you are. It is particularly important in our sessions for you to feel listened to. This is one of my strengths that I will be bringing to our sessions. My ability to put my full attention and focus on listening to what you have to say, and formulating what it all means. Often growing up, or in our daily lives, the people around us may not have the time or attention to allow us to feel fully understood. My goal is to have you feel fully listened to and understood. I believe in a collaborative approach, where we work together to understand your problem, and develop goals for therapy. It is important from the beginning, that the goals we develop together are realistic and achievable. I welcome feedback, when you feel as if the sessions are no longer effective for you, or if I am not in tuned to your experience. There will be times I will remain silent to provide you the space to search within yourself for the answers. There are other times I will be providing you feedback from a place of concern and healing to help you learn about yourself and encourage change. Another important part of our sessions is providing you with psychoeducation. Whether it is introducing you to new coping skills, teaching you effective communication skills, helping you make sense of what your experience is, putting experiences into a context, being able to put words to your thoughts and emotions. This often helps you feel as if you are getting something more concrete from our sessions. This is an area where providing handouts to read or to complete can be helpful. If this is something you appreciate, we can certainly incorporate more of it in our sessions. Also, if you respond well to reading and increasing your education in a particular area that we may be discussing. Please let me know, I will see if we can add some recommendations to our sessions for us to discuss. Lastly, I typically blend an eclectic mix of therapeutic interventions to assist and support you. This helps me tailor interventions to your unique needs. The on-line experience is different than in person, so I believe it is important to acknowledge this. There are some real strengths, such as convenience, and affordability. I am hoping to hearing feedback to improve your virtual therapy experience. Some clinical theories inherently are more conducive in a virtual setting, so this will be taken into in account due to the medium in which we will be working together. I believe in exploring the past, when appropriate, to understand your present, but not staying stuck in the past. I want to help your today. Join now, don’t put it off any longer.