Mental Health Therapy

What this is

Most people who contact me are not in crisis. They are tired. Something has been going on for months, sometimes years, and they have run out of ways to explain it away.

Therapy with me is a regular hour where that thing gets said out loud, in order, to someone whose only job in that hour is to understand it. We look at what you are carrying, where it started, and what keeps it in place. Not so you can be labeled, and not so I can hand you advice you have already given yourself. So that the pattern becomes visible — because a pattern you can see is one you can finally do something about.

I work in psychology and in cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT gives us a practical way to trace the link between what you think, what you feel, and what you then do, and a good deal of my work runs through it. I am not tied to one method. If what you bring needs something slower, or something different, we change how we are working.

Either way, I work at the level underneath the symptom. Sleeping badly, snapping at people you love, dreading Sunday night — those are the branches. They grow back if nothing changes at the roots. What I am interested in is the belief or the old fear that keeps feeding them.

What it can help with

• Anxiety that has spread — you are worrying about the worrying, and it has started shrinking where you go and what you agree to
• Feeling flat, heavy, or uninterested in things you used to want
• Panic that arrives without an obvious trigger
• Anger that comes faster and bigger than the situation deserves
• Trauma, and living with PTSD — the aftermath of something frightening or overwhelming that is still shaping how you sleep, react, and move through ordinary days
• Grief, including grief that arrived a long time ago and never quite finished
• A difficult childhood you have never really talked about
• Relationship trouble — a marriage, a parent, an adult child, a friendship that has gone quiet
• Burnout, and the guilt of not coping the way you think you should
• Trouble sleeping, or waking at three in the morning with your chest tight
• Big changes: a separation, a move, a job loss, leaving the country or coming back to it
• Feeling like a fraud in a life you actually worked hard for
• Not knowing what is wrong, only that something is

On trauma specifically: I work with people who are living with the effects of trauma, including people who have a PTSD diagnosis. I do not diagnose PTSD — that belongs with a doctor or psychiatrist — and if you are already under someone’s care, this sits alongside it. You set the pace. We do not go near anything before you want to, and you can stop a line of conversation at any point without explaining yourself.

What a session is like

You come to my room at Center St. Elie in Antelias. It is a quiet room with two chairs, a door that closes, and no one else in it. There is no waiting area full of people, no form to fill in first, no one taking notes about you in a corridor.

We sit down and I ask what brought you. That is the whole beginning. If you have rehearsed a version in the car, you can tell me that one. If you get halfway through and it comes out differently, that is usually the more useful version anyway.

You decide what you talk about. I may ask a question that goes somewhere tender, and you are allowed to say I don’t want to go there yet. That is a complete answer and I will not push past it. Some things take a few weeks before there is any point in touching them, and there is no cost to waiting.

The pace is slower than most conversations you have. You will not be interrupted. If you cry, that is fine, and it does not mean we have to stop or that we have to keep going. If you go quiet, I let the silence sit.

What you say in our sessions is confidential. I don’t discuss it with your family, your partner, or your employer. There are narrow exceptions that apply to any therapist — if someone is at serious risk of harm, or where the law requires disclosure — and I will tell you if that ever arises.

Toward the end I usually say back to you what I have understood, so you can correct me. Sometimes there is something to think about or try before we next meet. It is never homework you can fail.

Most people leave the first session tired and a bit lighter. Some leave stirred up. Both are normal, and neither one tells you much yet about whether this will work.

Practical details

• Session length: Ask when you message — I’ll tell you before you book
• Fee: Ask when you message — I’ll tell you before you book
• How many sessions: It depends on what you come with. We review as we go, and you decide whether to continue
• Languages: Ask when you message — I’ll tell you before you book
• Where: In person at Center St. Elie in Antelias, or online
• Cancellations: Ask when you message — I’ll tell you before you book
• To book: Message me on WhatsApp or call 03-267-243

Common questions

Is my problem big enough for therapy?

I get asked this more than anything else, usually by people who are clearly struggling. There is no threshold you have to cross. Waiting until things are bad enough only means arriving with more to unpick.

What if I don’t know what to say?

Then you say that, and we start there. You are not expected to arrive with your problem neatly summarized. Working out what is actually wrong is a large part of the work, not a prerequisite for it.

Will you tell me what to do?

Not usually, and not in the first session. Advice from a stranger who has known you an hour is worth very little. What I will do is ask the questions nobody in your life is positioned to ask, and keep asking them until something you have been walking past becomes obvious.

I have been told I have PTSD. Can you work with that?

Yes. I work with trauma and with people living with PTSD, and I will be honest with you about what that work can and cannot do — I am not going to promise you that a difficult history gets erased. What we can work on is how much of your present it is taking up. If you are under psychiatric or medical care, keep it; this runs alongside, not instead.

How long will this take?

Honestly, I don’t know at the start, and anyone who gives you a number before meeting you is guessing. Some people come for a short, specific piece of work. Others stay longer because what surfaced was bigger than what they came in with. We review it together as we go, and stopping is always your decision.

Do I have to keep coming?

No. There is no course to complete and no package you are locked into. You can come once and decide it is not for you. You can pause and come back later.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking of harming yourself, please do not wait for an appointment. Call the Embrace Lifeline on 1564 (free and confidential) or the Lebanese Red Cross on 140. This page is not an emergency service.

If you have read this far and are still not sure, message me on WhatsApp and ask whatever you need to ask.