If your life is difficult now and you are suffering I can provide some immediate relief.  Or, if your development has stopped around a particular issue and you can’t seem to get something you want, I can help you see what is holding you back.

I provide psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Psychotherapy is a once or twice a week therapy.  Psychoanalysis is three or four times a week and a more intensive work that triggers some regression into old patterns of relating that still exist and tend to be repeated.  The regression is necessary because these counterproductive patterns must be understood consciously in how they play out and what purpose they serve if they are to be modified.

One such pattern of relating that I specialize in is separation anxiety that triggers a fear of rejection and then negative self-judgment.  The old and current compulsion is to try to avoid these feelings by limiting human contact or trying to control the expression and behavior of the other.  This can lead to relationship problems and also to feeling lonely, unchosen, unworthy, fearful of contact, isolated, disliked, angry, depressed, and being alone.

Psychoanalysis has the frequency and continuity that make it a very effective and efficient treatment.  The issues that bring one to therapy come up in the therapy creating the best opportunity for change.  With the frequency of meetings psychoanalysis promotes a deeper more intimate relationship with the therapist.  It is in this new relationship that new ways of being with the other are developed.  Your relationship with me will provide you with opportunities for new experiences that challenge old ways of interacting.

Psychotherapy is conducted in the same way but with less emotional intensity due to the lower frequency of sessions.  Because of this psychotherapy is the best choice for some. One method isn’t inherently better than the other just better for some than for others.

Therapeutic Approach:

I think relationship to self is at the root of one's experience of life.  If it is mostly accepting then work and relationships can be satisfying.  If not then life can seem to be lacking and unfulfilling.  I listen on a level that informs me as to how you are relating to yourself and consequently to others. I will talk to you about what I observe.  This level of attention along with what I observe facilitates change.  Dreams and fantasies can be an informing part of our work.  The intent is to promote a way of reflecting on your emotional experiences to bring a respectful attentiveness to yourself as an established pattern. This can help in simply being human with all its imperfections.  Reactivity to pain won't stop because that is part of being human.  But reactivity can be decreased when the negative reaction to self is disciplined.  Emotional pain is hard enough to bear but when there is a negative reaction to yourself because of it then that produces its own excruciating pain and actually leads to more reactivity and a vicious cycle.  Being aware of this cycle and grappling with it makes a big difference.

Adrian Jarreau, LMHC, PsyA

The New England Bldg, Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington

219 First Ave S, Suite 405

Seattle, WA 98104

(206) 725-6920

FAX (206) 721-5935

adrianjarreau@gmail.com