Personality difficulties and disorders are deeply rooted patterns of thinking, relating, and coping that occur for a reason. They can be worked with.
Despite your best efforts, the same emotional reactions and relational loops are still there, which is often more frustrating now that you understand them. To make change that lasts, we need to work on a different level to access what your emotional system learned and why it still holds on.
Whether you relate more to personality difficulties or a formal personality disorder, these issues show up as patterns that feel automatic, persistent, and often out of proportion to the situation. It might be an emotional reaction that comes before you can catch it, or a way of relating that keeps producing the same outcomes even when you want something different.
Most people don’t think of this as “personality.” They think about how they always shut down when feeling criticized. They think about needing so much reassurance that they end up pushing people away, or seeing exactly what they are doing while still feeling unable to stop. I view these experiences as human traits existing along a spectrum, rather than fixed categorical boxes.
Some people reading this have received a formal diagnosis, which can provide language and relief alongside feeling like a verdict. Whatever your history, what matters here is understanding what drives the pattern and how to work with it.
Most therapy works at the level of awareness and behavior. You understand the pattern, build skills to interrupt it, and practice the new response. For some people, this is enough. For others, especially when patterns are deep, long-standing, or rooted in early relational experience, cognitive insight and behavioral change reaches a ceiling. It can feel like reading about swimming without getting in the water.
Personality-level patterns tend to be organized emotionally rather than cognitively. They live in the felt sense of what is safe, what is expected from relationships, and what you deserve. Changing them requires working at that emotional level.
I draw on Schema Therapy to map what is operating beneath the surface. We look at the schemas, modes, and coping strategies that developed around early experiences. I am trained in Coherence Therapy, which works to access the emotional learning directly rather than managing or overriding it. I also draw on IFS and other approaches when they fit.
Early sessions focus on mapping rather than diagnosing. We will work to understand what patterns keep showing up, when they developed, and what they protect. The goal is a shared picture of what is operating and what the work needs to address.
Sessions are active. We work directly with emotional experience as it shows up. That might mean tracking a reaction as it happens, working with a memory or image, or exploring what an emotional state is actually carrying. This asks for your active engagement and some tolerance for discomfort.
Progress in this work is real and it naturally moves at its own pace. Deeply rooted patterns do not shift on a rigid schedule. I will always be direct with you about where we are and what the process asks of you.
In person (Dallas) or telehealth (Texas).
I’m a therapist in Dallas working with adults whose patterns have proven resistant to insight-based approaches. My work draws on Schema Therapy and Coherence Therapy. We use one to map what is operating, and the other to change it at the emotional level where it lives.
MS · LPC Associate · NCC
Supervised by Erin Wysong-Warren, LPC-S.
Currently accepting new clients
In-person (Dallas) & telehealth (Texas)
I’ve been told I have a personality disorder. Is that what you treat?
Yes, though I tend to frame it differently. I work with people who have personality-related diagnoses, and I also work with people who recognize deep, persistent patterns in themselves but have never received a formal diagnosis. The focus is on understanding what is driving the pattern and how to work with it at the level it was formed, rather than treating a label.
What’s the difference between a personality difficulty and a personality disorder?
“Personality disorder” is a formal diagnostic category that implies a clinical threshold and a specific profile. “Personality difficulty” describes patterns of thinking, relating, and coping that are persistent and show up across many areas of life, simply without the all-or-nothing framing of a diagnosis. I tend to think about these things along spectrums rather than as fixed categories, but difficulties that rise to a certain level of intensity and pervasiveness I might label as a disorder.
I’ve been in therapy for years and nothing has changed. Why would this be different?
That’s a fair question. A lot of therapy addresses personality-level patterns through insight, psychoeducation, and skill-building, which is enough for some people. The work I do with Schema Therapy and Coherence Therapy operates at a different level. We work directly with the emotional learning underneath the pattern instead of just trying to understand it. We can figure out if this is the right fit for you during a consultation.
What is Schema Therapy and how does it work?
Schema Therapy maps the deep emotional patterns, called schemas, that develop early in life and persist into adulthood. Schemas are deeply held beliefs and emotional responses about yourself and the world. You might hold beliefs like I am fundamentally flawed, people will always leave, or I have to stay in control or everything falls apart. Schema Therapy also looks at the emotional states and coping styles that activate around those schemas. I draw on it as a framework for understanding what is operating and why certain situations trigger the reactions they do.
How long does this kind of work take?
It often takes longer than most people hope, and shorter than most people fear. Personality-level patterns are deep and took a long time to develop. Most people notice something shifting within the first few months. The pattern becomes more visible, there is more space around it, and some of the emotions begin to change.
Do you offer telehealth?
Yes. I see clients in person at IRR Dallas (4040 N. Central Expressway, Suite 210) and via telehealth for anyone in Texas.
Free 15-minute consultation call.