As a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and Board Certified Diplomate with more than 25 years of experience, I practice in Brookline, MA near Cleveland Circle. My nature is openhearted, with a mature appreciation of my patients, with whom I engage interactively and energetically. I am skilled in the psychology of positive growth and development and attachment relationship issues ( see "Approach" below" ) and am committed to helping patients (adults, late adolescents, elders and couples) discover and develop their inherent strengths so that they can heal, recover and live fulfilling lives.
The Practice
In her practice of psychotherapy, Ms. Fleger-Berman offers:
A safe and accepting relationship where we can share the burden of life’s challenges, whether in the form of fears, anxieties, confusions, angers, hurts, losses or depression.
Working together to make sense and meaning of past experiences.
Discovering, sometimes playfully, sometimes reflectively, what matters most to you in life--now and in the future.
Appreciating and developing your natural strengths and skills for living and loving.
Creating new positive experiences, sometimes of what you needed to experience earlier but did not.
Extending the experiences of psychotherapy to your personal and/or work life so that you can live and love with vitality, joy and equanimity.
Diversity of Work
Anxiety
Depression
Trauma, Abuse and PTSD
Disorganized Thoughts
Relationship problems and Couple Counseling
Realizing Creative Potential
Addictions and Co-Dependence
Loss and Grief
"The most important task of a human being is to make up his (her) mind – what’s for him (her) and what’s not for him (her)." -Elvin Semrad, M.D.
Approach
I have advanced training in the assessment of attachment pathology in adults and attachment based psychotherapy. The term attachment refers to loving interpersonal connection, while attachment based therapy facilitates the development of a secure sense of self, clarity and organization of mind, and positive interpersonal relationships. I am certified in the Adult Attachment Inventory, taught by Deborah Jacobvitz, PhD. and Mary Main, PhD. and also completed an advanced Externship in Assessment and Treatment of Attachment Pathology with Daniel Brown, PhD. I see the role of attachment in the therapeutic relationship as a primary source of energy for healing and personal growth.
I am certified by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Clinical Hypnosis focuses on internal personal experience and is a relaxed and safe way to explore and resolve problems.
Taking an eclectic and integrative approach to my work and using a variety of clinical hypnotic approaches, I draw upon my background in psychodynamic psychotherapy at Beth Israel Hospital and Mass. Mental Health Center, with its emphasis on making sense and meaning of life experiences. I integrate psychodrama, bioenergetics and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) as needed.
Understanding that healing has a spiritual dimension, I have practiced Indo-Tibetan meditation for 14 years, including deep concentration meditation, using Asanga’s “Nine Stages of the Mind Staying” and Tibetan Emptiness Meditation and Essence Practices.
