California Licensed Clinical Psychologist PSY32412
Specializing in Neuropsychological Evaluations & Depth Therapy
Private Counseling
Dr. McLaren's approach to the therapeutic process intends to support and guide life in meaningful ways. Through challenging the mechanisms that cause difficulty and suffering, something new emerges. Amplifying a felt sense of connection with oneself, and encouraging interface with this center of knowing, inner and outer life can take on more nourishing, stable, and creative patterns. The course involves finding relief from presenting symptoms, yet along the way, you may find a greater sense of alignment with yourself and your relationships, a recuperation of aliveness, feel more connected, or be more comfortable in your own skin. Goals tend to evolve through the course of treatment, as the work is a highly individual, dynamic, animate process.
Remote therapy appointments are offered for teens (16+) and adults seeking meaningful change. Private, confidential, remote sessions allow you to focus on your therapeutic goals without sacrificing richness or depth, while minimizing the added interference and stress of a commute. The space you select for appointments should be quiet and free of most distractions, so your time can be most impactful. As you begin, the work is most effective when you are able to commit to at least once a week, 50-minute sessions to stabilize the connection and the transference. This weekly commitment often changes and evolves after a course of treatment.
The Tools
Through collaboration, we track symptoms to untangle both explicit and implicit, conscious and unconscious features of the presenting problem. Explore the embodied, sensuous impact of childhood development, culture, the mind/body connection, non-ordinary experiences, and existential dimensions. Implement traditional cognitive and behavioral constructs to explore and find solutions. Challenge outmoded psychological defense mechanisms in mind and body. Create ritual space. Observe the process of reverie and mythopoetic association. Work with image and symbol. Dream work. Active imagination. Amplification. Build on your fund of coping resources. Cultivate gentleness. Consider Sensorimotor aspects of the nervous system. Invite Jungian and Depth psychological frameworks.
Areas of Focus
Anxiety, Career Exploration, Creativity, Depression, Grief and Loss, Fulfillment, Holistic Mental Health, Identity, Interpersonal Dynamics, LGBTQ+ and Nonbinary Affirmative, Life Transitions, Loss of Meaning, Motivation, Psychological/Educational/Attentional Evaluations/Assessments, Questions of Life Path and Self-Exploration, Recovery Stages of Addiction, Relationship Issues,
Self-Esteem, Sexuality and Sexual Health, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual and Existential Concerns, Stress, Survivors of Trauma and Abuse (personal, interpersonal, cultural), Vocation and Calling.
What is Depth Psychology?
Depth Psychology is an approach to therapy open to the exploration of the subtle, unconscious, and transpersonal aspects arising in personal, interpersonal, societal, cultural, and spiritual spheres of human experience. It is an interdisciplinary body of psychological practices and traditions that study the interactions between conscious and unconscious.