More About Carol Jensen Ph.D.

TREATMENT APPROACH

Psychotherapy focuses on restoring perspective and building confidence in addressing life’s challenges.  My approach is interactive, collaborative, and based on an appreciation of each person's creative potential. Through asking questions, sharing knowledge and observations, and getting feedback, we work towards self-discovery and understanding. Together we focus on clarifying goals and identifying effective ways to meet them. Psychotherapy involves recognizing and addressing patterns, expectations, or beliefs that may have been helpful in the past but are now interfering with moving forward.  Barriers are removed, and strengths are identified and fostered, becoming the foundation for new ways of approaching things.

EXPERTISE

My theoretical grounding is drawn from a variety of perspectives, not committed to a single approach to all clients or needs.  I strive to be flexible and to focus on what will work.  My expertise includes insight-oriented approaches, cognitive-behavioral therapy, systems therapy, play therapy, and EMDR.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

Many frameworks can be used to understand why we do what we do and how to facilitate change.  They vary in terms of what is seen as most important, how this was discovered, and to what degree insight and/or action are considered essential.  My approach to psychotherapy is based on multiple sources of data, multiple perspectives on motivation, and an appreciation of the usefulness of both insight and experiential approaches to change.

We are complex beings with many facets.  Some of our needs are universal; others are unique.  Our needs change during our lifetimes.  When the goal is to make change, whether in thinking, feeling, or behavior, it is important to explore and understand the role of emotions, cognitions, body, behavior, and context.  Our understanding of these things can be enriched by the research findings in human development, human behavior, and neurobiology.  Change can be approached, and can happen, in any one or all of these areas.

I have a working knowledge of psychodynamic, developmental, cognitive-behavioral, systems, and interpersonal perspectives.  I believe that psychotherapy works best when there is an appreciation of the whole person, when the perspective is based on what is most helpful for this person at this time, and when the methodology, whether insight oriented or experiential, is based on the goals and what works.  To this end, I am comfortable with an approach that flexibly moves between working on understanding and working on concrete change.

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

Work Experience:  I have been in private practice since 1993.  For seven years prior to opening my private practice, I was on the staff at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, Rhode Island providing clinical services and filling various management and supervisory roles.  From 1978 to 1986, I was on the staff at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts providing clinical services, supervising trainees, and administering a postgraduate training program.  My first position after graduate school was in the mental health program of the Bunker Hill Health Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Teaching Experience:  Over the years I have taught courses for graduate students in social work at Boston College, Smith College, and Simmons College.  Course topics include clinical practice with adults; treatment of children, adolescents, and families; intervention in psychiatric emergences; and assessment and treatment of adults who have experienced psychological trauma.  I am currently a part time faculty member at Boston College and a Clinical Assistant Professor in Brown University’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, where I teach child psychiatrists in training.

Education:  I received my masters in social work (MSW) from Simmons College in 1976.  I returned to the doctoral program at Smith College and received my Ph.D. in 1990.  My internships during graduate school focused on evaluation of and psychotherapy with children, adolescents, and adults.  My first year clinical internship was at Framingham Youth Guidance Center, and my second year internship was at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.  My undergraduate degree is from Tufts University, where I studied in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development.