Focused Expertise
Culture: Issues about Daily Life
Ms. Wechter addresses the interplay between dominant culture and individual psychology… how this interaction impacts psychological functioning, behavior and feelings of satisfaction and self worth. As individuals grow up, a fundamental reality is that environments shape their sense of who they are and what they can be. This "shaping" is often so syntonic, so invisible, that the awareness of its effect is lost. In fact, its impact can interfere with a person’s ability to function at optimal levels.
The psychotherapeutic process is like having a trusted advisor to help make the invisible visible, offering the possibility of self-knowledge and self-acceptance of one's own true capacities, both strengths and weaknesses.
General Wealth: Issues about Money
Ms. Wechter meets with individuals and families to discuss the psychological impact of wealth. This aspect of her work focuses on the psychological impact of wealth, critical choices about inheritance planning, articulating family values in decision making about wealth, ensuring attention to the psychological issues involved in transfer of wealth, and child rearing as it relates to wealth and privilege. Topics include attitudes about money and how they originate; and emotions about money and how deeply they affect identity.
Consider this: Money is so emotionally loaded…for many people it’s even harder to talk about than sex.
Identity: Issues about the Core
Ms. Wechter is concerned about identity consolidation and the external factors that either facilitate or impede this process. In her work with adolescents and their families, Ms. Wechter examines the influence of social and family context on teen behavior and its impact on self-esteem, ambition and inhibition. She is attentive to issues of privilege, and the questions and challenges of raising healthy, productive and “non-entitled” young adults. She explores these issues in her practice and in her writing, teaching and research.
At predictable life change points, individuals are forced to consider who they are and who they want to be.