Services

To learn about therapy services offered by Dr. Jackson and the mental health conditions that he treats.

Illustration of patient meeting with Dr. Jackson over the internet on their laptop

Dr. Jackson's Therapy Style

Broadly, I am trained in and practice from the framework of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This style of therapy is the result of decades of both academic and clinical research, conducted by researchers and clinicians all around the world. At its core, CBT aims to modify how we think and act, as a means to help change our more unhelpful emotions. Recognition of the overlapping connections between thoughts, behaviors, and emotions is the foundation of this style of therapy. However, I additionally incorporate elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which often take the shape of encouraging mindfulness meditation, as well as helping clients learn to accept the things in their lives that cannot be changed. While there is some debate within the field as to whether ACT is simply a type of CBT or a different approach altogether, my goal is to connect with you and work together as a team to determine what specific treatment approach is the best fit for your values and goals.

As for my unique style of therapy, I consider it empathetic, collaborative, and nonjudgmental. I aim to connect with you on a human level first and foremost, to ensure that we have a strong therapeutic alliance. From there, I build on this relationship and incorporate evidence-based treatments that we, crucially, work together to incorporate into your life in pursuit of your goals.

Virtual Therapy

Connect Talk Therapy was created with the purpose of providing virtual therapy, while maintaining the level of human connection that is both desired and necessary for therapy to have the most positive impact on your life. As such, I have designed my practice to make managing your appointments, connecting to those appointments, and working with myself as convenient and enjoyable for you as possible. I offer my clients an easy to use online client portal where they can do everything from send confidential secure messages to myself, view their upcoming appointments, and even pay their bills. Furthermore, I have made certain that my video and audio quality is top notch, such that you will see and hear me as clearly as if we were sitting across from one another in a cozy office. Put simply, it is my goal to ensure that you can connect to care, anywhere.

Please note that I only see individual (adult) clients. I do not conduct couples counseling or group therapy. Although I am open to occasional conjoint appointments, where you bring in an important person in your life for a specific purpose (e.g., we have been discussing how you can spend more time with your partner, and we agree to have a session where you bring them in to discuss the specifics of this).

The problems I treat include:

Anxiety, including work-related stress and social anxiety

Whether you just got a promotion at work and are feeling overwhelmed, you are finding it difficult to juggle your busy schedule, or you have noticed an uptick in your amount of worry about the little things in life, therapy can be a great resource for learning to manage that anxiety. I will work with you to decide on treatment goals, determine what are your challenges as well as (critically!) your strengths. From there, you and I will form a strong team between the two of us so that we can work towards achieving those goals together. Learning to better manage your anxiety can have significant benefits in other domains of your life as well, such as improving work performance or relationships with friends and family. Of course, this depends on how anxiety is uniquely impacting you, so feel free to request a free consultation with me to discuss if therapy for anxiety could be beneficial.

Social anxiety is a common form of anxiety, which can make forming new relationships or performing at work (e.g., giving a presentation) go from intimidating to truly terrifying. As such, I also strive to help my clients differentiate the type of anxiety or stress that they are struggling with, and I adapt my treatment approach to best fit each individual. If you suspect that the anxiety you are challenged by might be social anxiety, we can work together to investigate this and, if it is social anxiety, we can tailor your treatment to target this unique form of anxiety.

Depression

Alongside anxiety, depression is among the most common forms of mental health concerns that people seek therapy for. Due to its very nature, depression can cause one to feel scared and alone in the world, or it can sap one's energy to the point where completing normal daily tasks can feel exhausting. I aim to help you improve your mood, if this is something that resonates with you. We will work together to determine where we can start to make inroads at changing the way you think about the things that make you feel sad or empty, and I love to work with clients to change their daily routine to start fighting back against depression. As is the case for all my work, I do not believe in a one-size fits all approach, so it will be a collaborative effort for us to determine what exactly it is that is getting in the way of your happiness and decide how to best tackle the challenge of changing things.

Trauma

People often hear the term trauma and think it only means the most severe forms of trauma. Of course, sadly in some cases, these are the sorts of trauma that people are struggling with. However, trauma can range from the most severe to what is clinically mild - But still can be highly damaging and impactful! While severe trauma warrants a referral to a trauma specialist, which I am not, I do have training and experience with helping clients recover from experiences such as unwanted touching by a coworker, car crashes, traumatic experiences in the medical system (e.g., having undergone a difficult medical procedure), and more.
My fundamental approach to helping clients work through traumatic experiences begins with developing our therapeutic relationship, so that you feel well supported and highly engaged in therapy. From that foundation, I will then work with you to conjointly structure a treatment plan to begin implementing evidence-based trauma treatment into your life. This plan is always tailored to my individual clients, as no one person's trauma history is the same, nor does the exact same approach work for everybody.

Grief

Have you ever lost someone important to you and found it difficult to cope with the loss? Most of us, unfortunately, have been there at some point in our lives. In severe cases of grief, where the loss is completely debilitating, there are specialists who can help. However, many individuals are primarily looking for a nonjudgmental, empathetic person to support them through a difficult time in their life. If this is the case for you, I will strive to help. I have worked in the past with clients grieving the loss of a romantic partner, the aftermath of an accident resulting in loss of function, and other such unfortunate events. I aim to help my clients honor the memory of their lost loved ones or beloved parts of their lives they cannot get back, while also navigating how to move forward and getting back to enjoying life to its fullest.

Insomnia / Sleep Problems

Good sleep is something we all want but do not all have. Getting up in the morning for work or to take the kids to school can be exhausting and even painful if we did not get enough sleep the night before. In some cases, medical conditions can be the cause of poor sleep or tiredness during the day, so you may benefit from consulting with your medical doctor about this. However, if you believe there may be a psychological component to your poor sleep, I can help. Your sleep may be being impacted by other mental health concerns, such as depression or anxiety. In other cases, your very relationship with and the way you think about sleep and relaxation may be getting in the way of good rest. In yet other cases, your daily routine and behavior could be inadvertently sabotaging your sleep. Whatever the case may be, we can work together to come up with a plan for determining the root cause(s) of your sleep concerns, and start working towards a better night's rest.

Relationship Concerns

Difficulties in relationships, be it with coworkers, friends, or family members, can commonly concur with other mental health concerns. You may know at this point that I love to point out all the different meanings that “connect” has in Connect Talk Therapy. Well, I also hope to assist my clients in making stronger, healthier connections with others in their life! Sometimes this can be achieved through working through things such as anxiety, work stress, or depression - We all behave differently to others when we are not feeling like ourselves. Other times, our interpersonal relationships are being impacted by the boundaries we have with the people in our lives, the way we interact with our social world, or the time we invest (or do not invest) into our relationships. Beginning, as I always do in therapy, with forming a strong therapeutic relationship between you and I, we can work collaboratively to determine why your relationships are not going the way you would like them to, and come up with a plan for addressing this.