An interview with the founder of Tamara Faulkner Counseling Associates, PLLC
Your background includes art history training. How does that influence your approach to therapy?
"People are art" as Ann Patchett wrote in "Whistler," and art is people: both (to me) are embodiments of choices and circumstances, activate only when given attention, are unique, and change over time. I am motivated to see the beauty and goodness in both.
What kinds of concerns or clients do you find your practice is best suited for?
Adults ages 25 on up who are seeking a change in how they engage with others and/or themselves. Often those are people who are reconsidering their relationships to substances, living with chronic medical conditions, or care for those with medical or mental health issues.
You offer both teletherapy and in-person sessions. How do you decide which format works best for a given client?
First, by asking. I will suggest in-person if privacy is a challenge or if the person might benefit from a more protected environment.
Your practice draws on psychodynamic and integrative therapies. How do you blend those approaches in a typical session?
They aren't separate in the person. It just isn't the whole picture to engage with the mind and not the body, or the present and not the past.
What would you want someone who's never been to therapy before to know about working with your practice?
I love what I do and am committed to meeting people where they are (as clichéd as that sounds). It will feel worse before it gets better. No one, thank goodness, is broken beyond repair or completely fixed.