.png)
Joan S. Ingalls, Ed. D., LMHC
What to Do? Why Therapy?
Do you want to feel less depressed, get relief from anxiety, create better relationships, or find a more satisfying job? Do you feel overwhelmed but don’t know what tools might help you to cope better? Do you seek joy in your life but don’t know where to find it?
The good news is: you don’t have to know.
We all try to do so many things alone. We try so hard to be independent, self-sufficient, and autonomous. Maybe that’s why we are alone, or if not alone, feel alone.
But there are ways to feel better, and we can discover them together.
The good news is: you don’t have to know.
We all try to do so many things alone. We try so hard to be independent, self-sufficient, and autonomous. Maybe that’s why we are alone, or if not alone, feel alone.
But there are ways to feel better, and we can discover them together.
Philosophy
I’m a social therapist. Social therapists have understood and practiced for over five decades what longevity researchers are now discovering: building and maintaining our social connectedness to friends, family, and community is key to a long, healthy, joyful life.
The word social in “social therapy,” like the words creative arts in “creative arts therapy” (dance, art, and music), refers to the activity that the client and therapist simultaneously make and perform together. Just as that activity is the therapy in the creative arts therapies, the activity of making and performing social/emotional relationships with their patients is the therapy in social therapy.
It doesn’t matter whether you have an eating disorder or stage fright, or you’re a manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, or an addict; it doesn’t matter whether, to your dismay, you find yourself married to a “stranger” or are suffering the indignities of the “boss from hell.” We will create a way for you to have better relationships with the important people in your life. We will decide together whether you need better tools, a new perspective, or greater insight. We will decide together whether you must cope with your problem, solve it, or escape it.
The word social in “social therapy,” like the words creative arts in “creative arts therapy” (dance, art, and music), refers to the activity that the client and therapist simultaneously make and perform together. Just as that activity is the therapy in the creative arts therapies, the activity of making and performing social/emotional relationships with their patients is the therapy in social therapy.
It doesn’t matter whether you have an eating disorder or stage fright, or you’re a manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, or an addict; it doesn’t matter whether, to your dismay, you find yourself married to a “stranger” or are suffering the indignities of the “boss from hell.” We will create a way for you to have better relationships with the important people in your life. We will decide together whether you need better tools, a new perspective, or greater insight. We will decide together whether you must cope with your problem, solve it, or escape it.
Bio
Originally from Ohio, I migrated to New York City in the early 1970s to study dance notation - a language to record human movement. With the dearth of opportunities for employment as a dance notator, I moved on to become a dance therapist. As a therapist, I soon began to notice what was going on with my daughter's swim team. Why were the kids so upset after a race? With one practiced pull, they removed and flung their cap and goggles on the deck. I thought sports were supposed to be fun.
For more than a decade after earning a doctorate in sport psychology, I helped sports teams and individual athletes (and executives and performing artists) prepare emotionally and mentally for peak performance. With the spotlight always on the problems the athletes presented and teaching them a technique to fix themselves with, I was suffering from the very thing that I came to realize my clients needed help with - doing things alone. In my search for a cure, I found social therapy, and I have been practicing it since 2004 when I completed my training in social therapy at the Eastside Institute.
For more than a decade after earning a doctorate in sport psychology, I helped sports teams and individual athletes (and executives and performing artists) prepare emotionally and mentally for peak performance. With the spotlight always on the problems the athletes presented and teaching them a technique to fix themselves with, I was suffering from the very thing that I came to realize my clients needed help with - doing things alone. In my search for a cure, I found social therapy, and I have been practicing it since 2004 when I completed my training in social therapy at the Eastside Institute.