PSYCHOTHERAPY SERVICES

Dr. Tobin’s clinical psychotherapy practice consists of individual psychotherapy with adolescents, young adults, and adults. He also conducts marital/couple therapy, as well as parent guidance training. Relationship concerns, along with conditions including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and generalized states of dissatisfaction, lack of fulfillment, and disappointment account for a significant portion of Dr. Tobin’s practice. Dr. Tobin also works with patients who are experiencing major life stressors and/or transitions (e.g., coping with divorce; grieving the death of a loved one; beginning a new job/new career). Additionally, Dr. Tobin consults with patients on psychological factors involved in the professional workplace and on aspects of one’s life history that may be related to career dissatisfaction and/or disillusionment.

Individual Psychotherapy

Individual consultations typically occur on a weekly basis to address various forms of psychological distress and relationship problems. Dr. Tobin’s focus is on the pragmatic resolution of stresses in the context of exploring aspects of one’s personality and character which may contribute to or exacerbate life difficulties and dilemmas. The clinical orientation is open to exploring ways in which aspects of one’s development and history, and the personal adaptations used to cope with difficult life events, may have influenced one’s current predicament, social relationships, psychic conflicts, and overall emotional health.

Marital/Couple Therapy

Couple therapy is offered to partners who may have been married for several decades to those who are in a newly-established relationship. Dr. Tobin has experience working with heterosexual as well as homosexual couples. Dr. Tobin’s approach views common presenting problems for therapy (e.g., poor communication, gradually evolving emotional distance and alienation, suspected or actual infidelity, diminished sexual involvement, job/career transitions, and stressors including the birth of a child or the illness/death of a parent or sibling) as representative of inherent vulnerabilities in the dynamics of the couple that were likely not acknowledged previously.

For Dr. Tobin the couple is a system in which each partner comes to adopt a role necessary for the stability and functioning of the relationship. In the context of life events and stressors, as well as the general growth and evolution of each partner’s identity, theses established roles inevitably need to be re-evaluated and revised across time. Distressed couples, however, often need guidance and exploratory therapy to instill in their relationship a greater degree of role flexibility and fluidity so that each partner can continuously define and re-define who he or she is in relation to the other. If the couple is able to achieve this through therapy, intimacy will be reborn and the partners will emerge as figures of support and positive influence for each other. The dissolution of restrictive role assignment also helps to clarify if, for some couples, the ending of a conflictual and unfulfilling relationship is a warranted option.

Family Therapy, Parent Guidance and Adolescent Concerns

Dr. Tobin applies his research experience to therapy with adolescents and young adults, with a focus on addressing developmental challenges common at this point in the life course and often manifested in high-risk behaviors, sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, displays of under-achievement or over-achievement, and conflict/discord with parents. Dr. Tobin works individually with adolescents and young adults yet frequently supplements this treatment with adjunctive parent guidance, family therapy, and parent-teen conflict resolution sessions. This clinical approach acknowledges that the teen/young adult lives within a family system and in relationship to parents who may be confused, anxious, and concerned about what their child is experiencing, how to keep their child safe, and how to establish/maintain appropriate boundaries, often in the context of the child’s resistance and oppositionality.

To address parents’ concerns about how to manage more effectively their relationship with their child, Dr. Tobin has developed a series of interventions designed to support parents’ influential power and authority with regard to their child, while at the same time enhancing the skills necessary to relate to their child. The attempt is to supplant potentially enmeshed, overly-anxious and/or restrictive parenting approaches (which have been shown in the research literature to be generally ineffective) with a relational model that bolsters parents’ credibility and capacity to promote their child’s individuality, moral character, and drive. Dr. Tobin is currently at work on a book entitled “The Mindful Parent” which draws from current psychological theories including intersubjectivity, mentalization, and relational psychology, as well as Buddhist psychology and philosophy, to provide parents with a model for relating to their children in a way that liberates parents and promotes their own emotional healing and self-insights.  Please review a presentation of the foundations of Dr. Tobin’s relational approach to parenting; these concepts are also summarized in a briefer article.   

Aligned with this relational approach, Dr. Tobin has developed a unique coding system known as ARCC™ (Assessment of Relational Contingencies and Consequences) that is designed to assess the nature of interpersonal dynamics in conflictual families. The system utilizes a customized coding scheme to evaluate videotaped footage of parents and children interacting, which then allows for therapeutic interventions to be made directly with parents by closely inspecting the moment-to-moment elements of the interaction with their child.