Ellis Amdur offers individual counseling for teens and adults, coaching for parents with difficult children and counseling for couples. He calls his methodology “Integrity-Based Psychotherapy.” It is rational and compassionate, and is based on three fundamentals: developing and maintaining integrity, learning skills to manage the unpredictable, and facing life as it is given to us, not as we wish it might be.

This is not therapy geared to make an individual feel good – or feel bad either. Ellis’s goal is to assist others to live with courage and dignity. And with dignity comes the possibility of a passionate and joyful life – whether in an intimate relationship or not. This, in contrast to the pale satisfaction of having needs met, a common result of acquiescing to the demands of others.

Sessions are in the clients’ homes, not Ellis’s office. They often run several hours, allowing people to finish in a single session what would otherwise be delayed for weeks. Couples therapy focuses on both people using their relationship to “grow up.”  Rather than focusing on compromise, Ellis encourages individuals to stand up for themselves and strive for their own desires. This choice is made not out of selfishness or narcissism, but out of a commitment to giving one’s “truest and best self” to a partner.

Consultation: Troubling Individuals

Edgework offers private consultation for both psychotherapists and lay people who encounter troubling individuals.

We help psychotherapists who need both clinical and tactical consultation in dealing with aggressive or otherwise problematic clients. Receive confirmation of your therapeutic strategy. Recognize counter-transference situations that arise with dramatic suddenness in frightening situations. Augment the skills you need to insure your personal safety as well as that of your clients and others involved. Address and understand litigation issues and liability. Edgework can also work alongside you and your client regarding strategy and safety so you are free to help them on personal and emotional levels.

For lay people, there is assistance with aggressive or suicidal people – within one’s family or in other areas of one’s life. Techniques include verbal de-escalation techniques, use of spacing, stance, eyes and voice to calm an individual or establish control, and physical evasion and protective tactics. Edgework also offers tactical “as if” assessments regarding stalkers and recommends actions that have the best chance of minimizing a stalker’s approaches. This consultation can be face-to-face or over the phone, depending on the requirements of the situation.