Claudia Kritz
Dr. Kritz is a clinical psychologist specializing in individual adult psychotherapy in Oregon and maintains a private practice in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Kritz offers Telehealth options including phone or video as well as in person office sessions.
Education, Training and Professional Experience
Dr. Kritz has a career spanning nearly 30 years as a clinician,
supervisor, and teacher. After completing her Ph.D. in clinical
psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in
Los Angeles where she trained at hospitals including the Veteran’s
administration and the US Air Force, Dr. Kritz practiced at the
Oregon State Hospital, Pacific University’s Graduate School of
Psychology, and the Oregon Department of Corrections. She currently
provides private psychotherapy serving Portland and surrounding
areas. Her educational background includes a BA in Philosophy from
the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Linguistics from the
University of Illinois.
Dr. Kritz has over three decades’ experience in building healing alliances with many groups of people --adults, young people, elderly people, healthcare professionals, veterans, people in the justice system, law enforcement professionals, violence and abuse trauma survivors, college students, second language speakers, people facing loss or struggles with intimacy and identity –people from all walks of life -- in both inpatient hospitals and outpatient settings as a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor.
Style of Therapy
People of asked me over the years how psychotherapy heals or helps someone. How can just talking to a therapist be any help? I’ve always seen this as an essential question. Clinical experience teaches the powerful and puzzling lesson that talking to another human being is the only path to discovering the underpinnings of deep emotions. In therapy, we create a unique alliance in which talking, listening, questioning, and understanding free up awareness that takes form into insight and a new way of responding to problems -- and of moving forward. Uncovering the source of the emotional problem is a huge step in getting back control, returning to one’s own potential, and to peace.
Healing in psychotherapy takes place through creating a relationship in which a person can free up space to unearth and get through to something new by working with someone whose training focuses on supporting exactly this transition to psychological growth. While we can’t change the difficult situations of the past, we can work together to better understand them, and become more confident in face of life challenges. Through listening and questioning we will uncover long-standing behavior patterns or negative perspectives that may be holding you back from experiencing a more fulfilling and meaningful life, and work together to create new positive perspectives.
Specializations
Dr. Kritz has training and psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theories and maintains affiliations with the Contemporary Psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles and the Existential Psychoanalytic Institute and Society Worldwide.
Additional Information
In addition to her career in psychology, Dr. Kritz has worked in public service through activity in public and psychological communities. Her work has included serving on the Oregon Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee, on the Board of Directors for an at risk youth outreach program, as a lecturer at OHSU’s forensic psychiatry training program, through engaging with the justice system to prevent animal abuse by increasing awareness of the relationship between animal abuse and domestic violence, and as a member of Animals and Society Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to understanding the human-animal bond providing treatment for animal abuse offenses.