About Graeme:
Graeme Daniels
has been facilitating support groups and psycho-educational groups for over ten
years. He currently leads men’s support groups at the Impulse Treatment
Center in Lafayette. In collaboration with founder/owner Don Mathews, MFT, the
groups address issues of sex addiction and couples’ relationships. Graeme
is also currently the supervisor of the intern program at Thunder Road Adolescent
Treatment Center in Oakland, which specializes in substance abuse issues. Meanwhile,
he is also in private practice in Pleasant Hill and has worked with adults, adolescents,
and families dealing with substance abuse as well as sex addiction.As
a psychotherapist, I bring 12 years of experience working with individuals, adult
and adolescent, couples, and groups: addressing the areas of addiction, substance
abuse and sexual addiction. I believe the therapeutic relationship provides space
for insight and problem-solving, and also warmth, humor, and emotional depth
In therapy, I challenge clients to examine
their expectations for life, their preconceptions about the world around them.
Regarding addictions, I integrate 12-step philosophy with developmental
theories of the human psyche; utilizing principles of self psychology, I help
clients develop awareness of their psychological defenses. Meanwhile, offering
a social perspective, I help clients examine their struggle in a broader context.
Psychotherapy can sometimes feel like a counterintuitive process: the social pressure
to “keep busy” or to make “actions speak louder than words”
may compete with the hunger for an internal contemplation. All
of these goals are also applicable to couples therapy, wherein we can add
further tasks: separating what’s real from others’ projections (identifying
blame and advice-giving); demystifying the concept of personal responsibility.
On
Addiction:
To
begin addressing questions of addiction is to begin a process of internal contemplation:
to speak honestly as to the impact of the behavior(s) upon one's life; to assess
patterns of isolation, that is, the patterns of secrecy, deception, of emotional
withdrawal, that accompany and fuel the escalation of problems.
I invite visitors to read my articles upon distorted beliefs and
substance use, as well as group therapy, to understand further: |
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What
is a MFT?
- Marriage
and family therapists treat a wide range of serious clinical problems including
depression, anxiety, marital problems, individual psychological problems, and
child-parent problems
-
Marriage and family therapists
are mental health professionals trained at a Master’s degree level, to diagnose
and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage and family
systems.
- In all of these
contexts, therapy can pose challenging questions: do we accept the reasons for
doing what we do, or feeling what we feel? Can we determine what are outdated
beliefs, or merely those placed in inappropriate contexts.
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There exists a stereotype in our culture that while women are drawn to self-revealing,
accepting, and intimate relationships, men shy away from intimacy and closeness.
Three common barriers to close relationships among men are: competition between
men, traditional masculine stereotypes about "real men", and fear of homosexuality.
In my work with men, I help explore the myths of masculinity, challenge men to
see women's souls. I draw influence from renowned writers such as Robert Bly,
Robert Moore, as well as up-and-coming artists such as Rick Belden.
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