Heath Foster, MA, MS, LMFT

My Seattle practice involves counseling individuals, including teens, couples and families. I create a supportive, accepting environment for people to regain hope and create positive, lasting changes in their lives. I believe the key to life-altering therapy is an honest, warm and trusting relationship with your therapist - a place both laughter and tears are welcomed. Most of my clients come to therapy to reduce the suffering in their lives, connect better with the people around them, and cultivate passion and purpose.

I am a mother of three, a wife of twenty years, a daughter, sister and trusted friend, and I draw upon the wisdom and humility gained from these life experiences. I bring a practical, empathetic approach to my work, using proven evidence-based therapies and techniques that draw from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, systemic and humanistic traditions.

PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH

The basic goal of psychotherapy is to alleviate emotional pain and to come to know yourself better. Through therapy, people become more aware of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors and the dysfunctional ways they are responding to life’s inevitable stresses. With new insights and self-knowledge, they develop healthier coping skills and relationships and become more content and at peace.

Therapy works best when you and your therapist jointly set goals and regularly check in about your progress towards them. A goal might be to reduce the conflict in your marriage, form a warmer, healthier connection with a teenage son or daughter, alleviate depression that stems from adverse childhood experiences so that you can feel happier, or manage anxiety in a triggering work, school or parenting situation. The length of therapy depends on the nature of your issues. I believe that effective therapy can be brief. Some clients work through specific issues in five sessions while others want to work for longer periods, exploring significant themes in their relationships and their families of origin.

EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

I am trained in individual, child, couple and family therapy. I have an M.A. in Psychology from Antioch University’s School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy. I also have B.A. in history and English from Emory University in Atlanta (1987) and a M.S. in journalism from Columbia University in New York (1990). I did my clinical training at Navos Mental Health Solutions, a well-regarded community mental health agency in the Seattle area. I am licensed by Washington State Department of Health as a marriage and family therapist associate (LMFTA), license number 60547781. I am a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Psychological Association and the Seattle Counselor’s Association.