About Us

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HELPING ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS WITH LIFE TRANSITIONS 

AND EVERYDAY CHALLENGES 

Psychotherapy is a general term for treating mental health problems by talking with a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health provider. During psychotherapy, you learn about your condition and your moods, feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Psychotherapy helps you learn how to take control of your life and respond to challenging situations with healthy coping skills.

There are many types of psychotherapy, each with its own approach. The type of psychotherapy that's right for you depends on your individual situation. Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy, counseling, psychosocial therapy or, simple-therapy.

Salvatore Ridente, LPC, LCADC, Ed.S provides brief, short term, pragmatic problem-oriented therapy and long term comprehensive therapy. Upon initial evaluation we will determine which approach would best suit the client’s needs.

The therapy's primary goal is to help the patient overcome internal resistance to experiencing true feelings about the present and past which have been suppressed because they are either too frightening or too painful to face. The technique is intensive in that it aims to help the patient experience these suppressed feelings to the maximum degree possible; it is short-term in that it tries to achieve this experience as quickly as possible; it is dynamic because it involves working with unconscious forces and transference feelings.

Patients come to therapy because of either symptoms or interpersonal difficulties. Symptoms include traditional psychological problems like anxiety and depression, but they also include physical symptoms without a medically identifiable cause, such as headache, shortness of breath, diarrhea, or sudden weakness. These types of "Somatoform" Disorders classified in the DSM-V-TR occur because of distressing situations were painful or forbidden emotions are triggered outside of our awareness.  

Long-term therapy gives us the time to adjust and accept as well as relieve those areas of our life that are painful. It is often times very difficult for individuals to recognize and identify their part in the areas of conflict in their life; often times blaming others for their relationship difficulties.  When denying or avoiding those painful conflicts within themselves that have lead to these external relationship issues, long-term therapy will allow individuals to go beyond the avoidance and work through internal conflicts that if not addressed will continue to create havoc in our lives.