Clinical Practice and Psychotherapeutic Approach

Solution-Focused, Short-Term, Problem-Solving Approach 

Dr. Frey takes an aggressive and short-term approach to solving problems. As a clinician, he is interactive, talkative, and listens well. He takes the unsolvable and self-defeating problems his clients bring to him and reformats them into solvable and sensible issues. Dr. Frey then helps clients break out of self-defeating patterns and deal with the emotions of fear, dread, shame, and guilt that have kept them stuck for so long. His clients' average number of sessions is four to six, right within the national average.

Family/Systems Philosophical Approach

Dr. Frey's philosophical approach to intervention comes from a Family/Systems perspective that dates to his doctoral training in the 1970s at Georgia State University. Dr. Frey views problems as interactive and not just as being "inside" an individual. His approach is not based on a medical model in which everything is related to something wrong inside the person, such as a "chemical imbalance" or a "depression gene." " He works hard in his sessions on helping clients forge new ways of relating to break the vicious cycles and self-defeating patterns that typically sustain their anxiety, guilt, anger, trauma, and depression.
Dr. Frey has a gift for listening to people and working with them to understand and define their unconscious belief systems. These are patterns of beliefs we carry with us from childhood and adolescence. Most of the time, our belief systems influence our behaviors without us realizing it. We carry these patterns from our earlier years into adulthood. We apply them in our work, to picking out our partners and spouses, and in rearing our children. Unfortunately, we utilize them even when we don't need to, which causes self-defeating patterns in our relationships. Dr. Frey identifies self-defeating patterns and helps clients make decisions that allow them to break free of the patterns and deal with the emotions that have kept them in place. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental disorders can make the patterns worse or, sometimes, cause the psychological problems we have.
Ultimately, Dr. Frey believes in the worth and dignity of all people. All his clients, whether seeing him for therapy, forensic purposes, or career consultations, are treated with respect and honor. He believes in laughing at himself and teaches others to laugh at themselves. 

What to Expect

Most of Dr. Frey's new clients express surprise at how interactive he is with them. He rarely asks his clients how they feel. He provides them with his thoughts and questions them about their experiences. He draws mental pictures for them. He gives them analogies to picture their problems. He provides them with sample self-defeating patterns such as "giver-and-taker," victim-and-rescuer," and "distancer-pursuer." " He helps them understand their relationship structure and hierarchy and how these patterns can repeat over generations. These are the tools that give clients the courage to face dysfunctional relationship interactions outside the therapy office. 
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