Find a Therapist in Olalla, Washington.

Psychotherapy is a big investment in yourself—and it has to pay off and reach beyond the hour you spend in the therapy room. Your unique needs and wants will shape our approach, rather than a one-fits-all method. This is your time to identify what you want for yourself, unburden, get support, gain new perspectives, tools, and skills. My approach is caring, curious, and active, with occasional humor sprinkled in. I want you to find the solutions that will work for you and the skills and insights to implement them.

Therapy with me is largely about dialogue and connection. I ask my clients to make themselves vulnerable in the process and I am willing to do the same. I try to stay with what the client is bringing to the conversation and really understand where they are coming from in relation to their larger context. I am curious and well-rounded and can connect with clients on many levels and on many topics. I ask insightful questions, connect seemingly disparate dots to find patterns, pose theories and suggest treatment plans. It's only through understanding where you are that you can then decide where you would like to go.

Psychotherapy is relational. It's about feeling safe with your therapist where you can express your innermost thoughts and feelings. I provide a nurturing and structured space where you can get to the root of your issues in as short of time as possible. While I believe in the benefits of long-term therapy, I also know many of you want solutions. Consequently, my approach is solution-focused with cognitive behavioral techniques and even assignments for clients to help them reach their goals more quickly.

Life can be hard. Help is here for you. Challenges and problems are part of life. It's good to reach out for help. You are the expert in your life, in your goals, values and aspirations. I am here to provide tools, accountability, support, encouragement and help in revealing to you all your inner awesomeness. I have unwavering confidence in your capabilities and potential, even when you find it hard to see them. Together we create a place to step back and gain perspective, test ideas, create solutions and move towards a life that is fulfilling, meaningful and connected.

Mental Health Counseling services is a subfield of psychotherapy. Counseling is designed around specific client goals and needs that enhance the client's wellbeing and overall functioning. Support networks are considered as well as wraparound services as needed. This practice promotes a collaborative relationship with other services in the area as needed, provided such collaboration assistance is permitted by the client. Treatment/service plans can be developed for more structured counseling services.

Therapy is a way to create your own support system and carve out time in your week that is just for you. I will help you to identify feelings and thought patterns living in the unconscious that are keeping you from moving toward your potential and living a truly authentic life. Our symptoms are like arrows that point to the wound. I follow your symptoms and work with and identify the underlying issues. If given the time and support, the psyche will always move toward healing.

Therapy is honest, cathartic, truth-telling, relational work. It's facing your story. It's feeling things long pushed away and ignored. It's being heard. It's hearing your own voice. It's coming into relationship with yourself. Psychotherapy is a lot of different things and ultimately it's about the relationship and rhythm you find with your psychotherapist. I would love to meet to see if it is a good fit.

My approach to psychotherapy is rooted in a relational approach that engages not only your behavior but the ability to explore the meaning behind the behavior. You will be able to explore your story in an environment in which you will feel cared for and encouraged. Change takes place in our work together as we explore your current difficulties in such a way that will result in a different future. What clients have found is a sense of seeing and living differently in the world. My hope would be the same would be true for you.

I am honored to work with individuals and couples from many different walks of life. My approach is rooted in respect, authenticity, and collaboration — always holding you as the expert in your own story. In our work together, I strive to create a space that feels safe, supportive, and genuinely affirming, where you can explore challenges honestly and move toward healing, growth, and deeper connection.

I started as an intern clinical mental health therapist in a psychiatric center in 2007, and continued to practice therapy in elementary and middle schools, and in a community mental health center. Together, we will find the strengths of you, learning new coping and relaxation skills, and re-organize past traumas emotions into a harmless and neutral position. It is possible for you to feel valuable and joyful.

Understanding our past and its impact on our current life can be life changing. We carry our past with us. We carry our interpretation of our past and it repeats itself in our love relationships, friendships, family, and work success or failures. Being more in charge of the choices you make and the relationships you enter into will be the result of our sessions.

Psychotherapy is an avenue for you to gain the skills and support you need to make the changes in your life that you want. My therapeutic focus is to get you some relief from your symptoms then address the underlying issues and trauma that at the root of those symptoms. We will tailor the mix of tools that we use to meet your particular goals. I often use elements of mindfulness, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, and trauma focused modalities such as Lifespan Integration and Trauma Resiliency Model with the ultimate goal of an integrated self.

We cover over our real desires and feelings because it doesn't seem safe to expose them, and then we live our lives separated from our true selves. I think of psychotherapy as the deeper work that involves first uncovering, then understanding and experiencing, and finally embracing the person that can just be...themselves. It's a difficult journey at times, but it allows one to engage with the mysterious wonder of being alive, of making choices, and feeling ownership of who they are in this world.