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My Approach

How I Work

I do not follow a single framework, and I do not run a manualized treatment plan. The work in front of any one client rarely fits cleanly inside one school of therapy. So I draw from several, and I use whatever the work actually requires.

What stays constant is the stance. The room is confidential. The conversation is honest. I am direct when directness is useful and patient when the work asks for patience. The goal is change you can feel and use, not insight that stays in the room.

Therapy session in progress. Dr. France Frederick's approach to treatment.

What sessions are like in practice

The first session for any new client is ninety minutes. We use that time to understand what is bringing you in, what you have already tried, and what you are actually hoping will change. I am listening for the real issue, not just the surface complaint. People often start with one thing ("I am anxious all the time") and through honest conversation we find the thing underneath: a belief about yourself, a relationship pattern, pressure you have internalized.

Ongoing sessions are fifty minutes. Most clients begin weekly and move to every other week or monthly as the work progresses. We set the cadence together. There is no fixed endpoint. Some people come for a focused stretch around a specific issue and finish in two or three months. Others find that longer-term work opens up something more meaningful and stay for a year or more. You decide when to conclude.

You set the agenda. In some sessions we are solving a present-day problem. Others we are understanding why a pattern keeps repeating. Sometimes we are working with grief, or rebuilding identity after a major life change, or learning to work with anxiety without organizing your life around it. The point is movement: toward more clarity, more choice, more alignment between who you are and how you are living.

How I Decide What To Do

The framework I use is the one most likely to move what is stuck.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

When the patterns of thought and behavior are clearly part of the problem and you are ready to change them directly. Useful for anxiety, panic, perfectionism, and depression that has clear behavioral components.

Psychodynamic Therapy

When the patterns have older roots, when "I know better but I keep doing it" is the recurring theme, and when you want to understand where a pattern came from before changing it.

Family Systems and Attachment

When the issue is relational at its core, when childhood experience is shaping adult behavior, or when a couple's conflict has roots that neither partner has named.

Psychological Testing

When a clearer answer would change the direction of treatment. Useful for diagnostic clarification, ADHD or learning concerns, and presentations that have not responded to standard care.

Interpersonal Therapy

When the focus is current relationships and how they are maintaining depression or anxiety. Often a turning point for clients whose mood disorders track closely with their social world.

Somatic Awareness

When the nervous system is part of the picture and talking alone is not moving it. Useful for trauma, panic, and chronic stress responses that live in the body.

What stays the same regardless of approach

A few things I will not change to fit a method.

Honesty. I will tell you what I am seeing. I will not soften an observation past the point of usefulness, and I will not pretend agreement when I disagree.

Confidentiality. What you share in session stays in session, with the standard legal exceptions and one routine carve-out for clients using BCBSAL benefits. The full detail is in the FAQ.

Pacing that fits you. Therapy works when the room is honest. We do not push past readiness. We also do not stall when readiness is there.

A small caseload. I keep the practice small enough that each client gets focused attention. That shapes how I work more than any single method does.

Serving Fairhope and Beyond

In-person clients come from Fairhope, Daphne, Spanish Fort, Mobile, and across Baldwin County. Telehealth sessions are available to residents anywhere in Alabama.

If any of this matches what you are looking for, the next step is a phone call.

We talk about what is bringing you in, whether the practice is the right fit, and what scheduling would look like. Call 251-751-0765 or send a note through the contact form.

Send a message

or call 251-751-0765