not to tell them what to do."
-- Unknown
Specializations
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Relationship Problems
- Dream work
- Alcohol or Drug Problems
- Sexual Addictions
- Anger/Assertiveness
- Health
- Career or Work
- Role or Age Changes
- Divorce
- Loss or Grief
Problems Classified According to the Current Diagnostic Manual (Dsm-Iv-Tr)
- Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adult ADHD)
- Substance-Related Disorders
- Mood Disorders (Depressive and Bipolar)
- Anxiety Disorders
- Dissociative Disorders
- Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders
- Eating Disorder (primarily overeating or binge eating)
- Sleep Disorders
- Impulse-Disorders
- Adjustment Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Problems Related to Abuse or Neglect
- Bereavement
- Academic Problem
- Occupational Problem
- Identity Problem
- Religious or Spiritual Problem
- Phase of Life Problem
It is commonly held in the field that there are three broad schools of thought or theoretical orientations; psychodynamic, cognitive (or cognitive-behavioral), and humanistic (or humanistic-existential). Dr. Keddy's approach is "integrative" in that he draws on all of these approaches to find what is most helpful to the individual client.
Contemporary psychodynamic theory is a series of propositions that can be briefly summarized as follows:(1)
- Much of mental life, including thoughts, feelings, and motives, is unconscious.
- Mental processes, including affective and motivational processes, operate in parallel. This means that one may have conflicting feelings that motivates ones in opposing ways towards the same person or situation.
- Stable personality patterns begin to form in childhood and childhood experiences play an important role in personality development. Early experiences are particularly important in shaping the ways people form later social relationships.
- Mental representations of self, others, and relationships guide people's interactions with others and influence the ways they become psychologically symptomatic.
- Personality development involves not only learning to regulate sexual and aggressive feelings but also moving from an immature, socially dependent state to a mature, interdependent one.
British psychiatrist Anthony Storr writes that, "One of Jung's central ideas was that modern man had become alienated from the mythopoetic substratum of his being, and therefore his life lacked meaning and significance for him…The task of analysis was to put him in touch once again with this absolute or 'divine ground,' as Aldous Huxley would have called it, by means of analyzing the subject's dreams…Modern 'existential' analysts are preoccupied with exactly the same problem"(2) (loss of meaning in existence).
There is also in Jung's view the idea that there is a drive towards self-realization or wholeness, which Jung called "individuation."
His work is also cognitive or cognitive-behavioral in that, again depending on the client, he may help the client to challenge dysfunctional beliefs or thoughts that lead to negative feelings or self-defeating behavior. The Relapse Prevention approach to substance abuse or addiction problems, a special interest of Dr. Keddy's, is a cognitive-behavioral model. Interventions include identifying specific high-risk situations for each client and enhancing the client's skills for coping with those situations, increasing the client's self-efficacy (a sense that one is able to master the situation), eliminating myths regarding alcohols effects, managing lapses, and restructuring client's perceptions of the relapse process. "Cognitive restructuring" or "reframing" is a regular component of cognitive therapy. In Relapse Prevention it is used to assist clients in modifying their attributions for and perceptions of the relapse process. For example, people who attribute a lapse to their own personal failure (lack of willpower…) are likely to experience guilt and negative emotions that can lead to increased drinking in an attempt to escape those feelings. Alternatively, looking at the lapse as a learning situation allows one to learn from one's mistakes in a particular situation.(3)
(1 ) This summary is drawn from Westen, D. (1998). The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 124,No. 3, 333-371.
(2 )Storr, A. (1991) Jung. New York, Routledge, 36.
(3 )www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh23-2/151-160.pdf Relapse Prevention: An Overview of Marlatt's Cognitive-Behavioral Model.