Coping with Life's Changes and Challenges
Clinical Time with Elizabeth

Elizabeth Einstein, MA/LMFT is a Marriage & Family Therapist who works with families in transition. A clinical member of the American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (click on Therapist Locator and use zipcode 14850 for profile), her private practice is in Ithaca, NY. You can work with her through telephone consultations and coaching as you move through your challenging Stepfamily Journey.

Many life transitions can be challenging!

Things change! And when change involves families—illness, death, job loss, infidelity, recovery issues, separation, divorce and remarriage—challenges can overwhelm any family, making it unstable. While change is good and transforming, for most people, it's neither an easy nor smooth process. Too often, a crisis is the impetutus for counseling.

My clinical training is rooted in family systems—that is, the behavior of each family member affects the others. My basic belief about people is that every human being is capable of change and has all the resources within to do so. Often, a guide—my role with you—is helpful in accessing your strengths and unconscious thinking patterns. Rather than viewing people who struggle with life changes as "sick" or "weak," I believe that our inability to manage relationships, or make necessary change is rooted in our families of origin—the family in which we grew up. Although they did the best they could with who they were at the time, our parents—our first teachers—may have lacked the skills to teach us what we needed to function as healthy adults. If we're still using using those same, outdated skills, our relationships may not be very effective.

As your therapist, my role is to guide you as you explore the challenges in your life that keep you from meeting your full potential.

Although not exclusively so, much of my work is with divorcing adults and their children, single parents, and with remarried families. Divorce and living in a stepfamily holds many challenges; but when people take time to resolve old losses, examine expectations, and get new information and skills, your new family can be a joyful one!

If you'd like to consider me as your guide on your emotional and spiritual journey, we can examine that possibility. If you don't live in the Finger Lakes region, I do stepfamily counsulting or coaching by telephone.

Call at (607)272-2552 or e-mail eaestepkid@msn.com with "counseling request" in the subject box so your request isn't deleted.