We can talk about anything and everything and there's no need to worry about gossip in the halls. Your secrets are safe with me. Teens over 13 years old - you're in charge of how I talk with and if I share certain information with your parents. Exceptions are made for your safety.
In therapy or counseling, we might talk about stress and anxiety, social media, body image and confidence, depression or self-harm, friendships and "mean girls," dating and sexuality, family relationships, foster care or adoptions, grief and loss, abuse and violence, substance use, academic or career goals.
If you're encountering an active eating disorder, addiction or suicidal ideation, please seek specialized care.
The twenty-something years are remarkable, but they aren't always easy. Sometimes it's nice to have someone with us on the journey.
These are once-in-a-lifetime years of adventure and self-discovery. It's also a time of soul-searching about our identity and the choices we're making - decisions about career paths, friendships, love and sex. It's a defining season in our families too, finding our own path and creating boundaries with others.
Would you value conversation but life on campus or a busy work day make it challenging? Ask me about virtual telehealth therapy options.
We will all experience loss, and we will all grieve deeply. Our stories of pain will be different but we are united by this universal truth.
Did you know there are different types of grief and different styles of grieving? It can be helpful to have support as we make sense of experience, our emotions, and our healing.
It's also helpful to know grief arrives in waves but it will not always overpower us. Resilience in the presence of pain is an important skill that will serve us well, in grief and throughout our life.
Struggling with the losses created by COVID? You aren't alone. Let's talk.
Therapy or counseling is a relationship separate from other parts of your life. It's an opportunity to be in supportive and thoughtful conversations about topics important to you. It's an intentional way of talking and exploring together. It's a partnership between a person's knowledge and expertise about their own life and a therapist's offering of meaningful questions and conversation.
In a world where life is busy and schedules are full, it can be challenging to find time to pause and focus on our lives in intentional ways. Therapy provides a private space and relationship for our nourishment. It's a time to explore our life and devote attention to areas of our life we'd value enhancing or changing. For young adults, it can be especially helpful if conversations with parents or other adults aren't feeling possible or ideal.
For most of us, we reach a time in our life when the dreams we have for ourselves don't match the life we are living. We believe a better experience is waiting. People often begin therapy when they're feeling stuck, frustrated and wanting change. Beginning therapy doesn't have to mean anything is wrong with you. It means you want something different or more for your life and want to talk about how to move in those directions.
We need our friends, but even the best of friends can't be everything to each other. Sometimes friends feel burdened by certain conversations and relationships can become strained. Friends often mean well and want to be supportive but they aren't educated or trained in ways that can be most helpful. When a friend knows they can be helpful or they don't know what to say, they can feel overwhelmed and might even pull away. Having a relationship with a therapist can free up friends to enjoy themselves while getting greater support outside of those friendships. And since therapy is a confidential relationship, you never have to worry about conversations spreading to other friends.
One of the most important aspects of therapy is the privacy of the therapy relationship. Your identity and our conversations together remain confidential unless you provide permission otherwise. Only with your permission can I speak about our relationship or our conversations. I believe every person deserves a sacred place to share and I take every effort to guard your privacy and confidentiality with great integrity.
Since I'm a mandated reporter in Washington State, there are exceptions to confidentiality largely related to preserving a person's safety. I'm glad to discuss this further together.