Services
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy centers around you: your goals, the obstacles affecting your happiness, your needs and hopes.
We often begin therapeutic process with focus on awareness. During this phase of therapy, you can expect to talk about feelings, become aware of thought and behavioral patterns, identify family of origin dynamics and articulate exactly how your specific patterns are having a negative impact on your life, relationships and your ability to feel fulfilled.
Chances are, you've already tried to find solutions to your problems. Maybe you'd found short-term fixes or answers to some of your questions, but then the problem returned or worsened. You find yourself lacking fulfillment again.
In therapy, we examine your past coping behaviors, determine what works and what doesn't and develop new skills and coping strategies that lead to a happier, fulfilled life.
Finally, we look for the untapped resources within you that will allow for freedom from the negative forces holding you back. This is the exciting part! Change starts to happen. You will notice you think differently, you react to others with more assertiveness rather than aggression or passivity, your communication is clearer and life is starting to go your way!
Life Isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw
Couples Therapy
Couples therapy offers the opportunity to rebuild, rejuvenate and rekindle a relationship. The goal is for both individuals to understand their partner’s feelings, needs and wants, make amends and declare new patterns of interaction. This is hard work! Showing up to therapy is not enough. You have to participate both in session and at home.
In therapy, couples learn how to keep relationships from deteriorating, with an emphasis on good listening and communication skills, conflict resolution, and sharing intimacy.
There is process and content. Most couples want to come to therapy to talk about all the content: he-said-she- said, he-did-or-did-not-do-this and she-didn’t-do-that. Interestingly, if you took all the examples, you could find a dance, a pattern of communication also called a feedback loop. It is that interaction that becomes toxic. Over time, resentment builds and communication and mutual respect break down. In therapy, we focus on the process. We identify that toxic pattern and find more productive ways to interact.
People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be, not what you nag them to be. S.N. Parker
Family Therapy
Family therapy is a unique opportunity to bring together the entire family. Group sessions allow children, adolescents, parents, grandparents and blended families to explore developmental changes, create boundaries and limits, negotiate house rules and define family member roles.
When families come together they can experience connectedness in a forum where everyone has a voice.
Families have a pattern of interaction that impacts each person as well as the common good. A family system can be a powerful place to draw confidence and assurance as easily as it can be a place to feel powerless and uncertain. If we learn how to support one another while also setting limits and following through with what we say, we can have a new strength within.
Other things may change us but we begin and end with the family. Anthony Brandt
Workshops
Dr. Craig has created a series of workshops to help people learn, start the growing journey and feel better personally and in relationships. The workshops vary in length and topics depending on the audience. Communities have offered her workshops at churches, elementary and middle schools, private businesses, support group settings and more. Her audience is typically adults but click here to learn about her family group series geared towards parents AND their kids. See below for more on specific workshops.
Thriving with Life-Work Balance
Does your chest constrict and breath become shallow; does your stomach churn at the impossibility and unattainability of that goal?
We are told that all the moving parts of our life must fit neatly; the have-to's must absolutely balance out the get-to's. Yet, the harder we try to attain this ephemeral balance, the further it seems to move away.
How in the world are we supposed to balance conflicting priorities, excel across multiple life domains, and fit 48 hours of activity into 24-hour days?
We can't. At least not in a permanent kind of way. Balance can only exist in a singular moment; once the moment is gone so is the 'old' balance. Permanent balance is only achievable when we are six feet under. Instead, we should aim for life harmony.
To understand life harmony, think of a beautiful symphony. With more than 100 instruments playing, each gets its turn to shine and a turn to rest, each has a role of importance assigned by the composer and interpreted by the conductor. Some instruments play throughout the score, some get only a brief part. The result is not balance, but beautiful harmony that touches the soul and nourishes the spirit.
Emotional Connection in the Family
Modern research shows that human connection and attachment are essential to feeling happy and healthy. Specifically, we need emotional connection with other people in order to thrive. And the best place to receive connection is with our kids and partner.
This workshop focuses on how to develop, maintain and repair the emotional connection between romantic partners, and between parents and children. Topics include ways to foster productive communication, to notice and share your partner’s wins, and to find time and energy to be present. The workshop consists of a lecture followed by a question and answer period.
Living Your Best Self
Are you feeling blah, unmotivated or melancholy? Do you find things you used to like aren't as enjoyable? Or do you have less patience with your partner and children? Do you remember the last time you were truly inspired in a meaningful way? If you can relate to these, this is the workshop to reset and bring back your guiding light.
A common reason we get stuck in these tough places is learning about ourselves is hard. We can also feel (mistakenly) it won’t change anything. Mostly, however, it’s because when we approach the mirror to examine ourselves and the dark places we find, it brings discomfort we fear we won't get out of. And frankly, none of us have time to get stuck in darkness. So we keep going, but our cup is not full.
This workshop uses key concepts of self-compassion and self-awareness as a guide to personal renewal as it relates to individual goals, improving career satisfaction and connecting in marriage and family. We explore how to fuel a happy mind, take meaningful action, lean into positive relationships, distance ourselves from toxic relationships and use time wisely, so that we do not to miss iconic moments …as well as why all this matters.
The workshop consists of a lecture, large group discussion and a question and answer period.
Parenting Tweens So They Will Want to Talk to Us When They’re 25
We often spend the years when our kids are 9-to-12-years-old (tweens) focusing on academic abilities and social concerns of elementary school years then pivot straight to preparing for the teen years. We miss the explosion taking place in front of us right here, right now. This is a time to lean into our children - who they are and who they are yet to become. This tween period of development is when they are most vulnerable and we, as parents, can be impactful. Tweens need to have people and places to feel safe and supported through these years because in reality, tweens are confused, too!
In this workshop, Dr. Craig walks us through the neurobiological milestones before puberty that shape tween behavior, discusses ways to build emotional connection and offers survival tips for parents during this developmental stage.
Men and Depression
The physiological differences between men and women, as well as the differences in the life circumstances and familial and societal expectations, contribute to the onset of symptoms related to depression and inform how each gender experiences, expresses and copes with depression.
Men are more likely to experience symptoms that differ from the commonly referenced presentation of depression—sadness. Anger, aggression and irritability are more likely expressions of depression in men. They are also less likely to recognize and acknowledge their symptoms and less likely to seek treatment.
This workshop was created to help men and their families navigate this common, albeit difficult to face, problem: to provide the resources, tools and encouragement needed to recognize and treat depression.
Community Tween Pop-Up Group Series
a place for tweens to come together. . .
Everyone wants to be heard …to express opinions …to be understood.
Tweens need to have people and places where they can feel supported to safely talk with others …a place where they can express feelings and thoughts and not be laughed at. This safe place can be anywhere—a church group, scouting, school clubs, sports teams. Tween Pop-Up Groups are designed to offer time and space in the community for social, emotional and character development led by tweens and guided by a licensed professional.
The developmental stage we call the tween years encompasses a period I refer to as “the forgotten years”—a time when parents describe their rapidly changing child with phrases like “he changed overnight” or “she is secretive” or “he has emotional outbursts for no reason” or “her friend group is more important than her family.” Overnight, it seems our children turn into new people we don’t know. In reality, tweens are confused too! To them, overnight their bodies go through new changes, their emotional turbulence appears more often and hard for them to describe, and their peer relationships matter in a profound way that impacts how they see themselves. Meanwhile, parents and caregivers tend to focus during the elementary years on academics and social dynamics to make sure their children are safe and happy. And then shift to worry about the teen years and the changes ahead. These four little years between 9-12 get overlooked in the hustle and bustle.
Pop-Up Groups meet throughout the community for tweens to attend and talk openly, learn about themselves and grow in their understanding of the world around them. It is a short-term commitment (come to one, some or all the groups) that offers group members an opportunity to experience curiosity about self, answer questions they are unsure how to ask, and feel heard. Each group offers a safe place to talk, play, move, think and leave feeling lighter. Groups include time for activities, sports, discussion, games, music, art and food. The groups are happening in a variety of settings throughout our community to expose tweens to different places that are here to support and nurture their development. Each community site will have a different focus that touches on the theme of social emotional development.
Audience: Boys and girls ages 9-12
Length: Each pop-up group is on site for an hour and a half session.