Francessa Starr, M.A., LPC

One of my favorite parts of therapy is helping people discover that they’re often far more understandable than they’ve been led to believe. The anxiety that won’t quiet down, the relationship pattern you keep finding yourself in, the anger you think you shouldn’t feel, or the part of yourself you wish you could change usually didn’t come from nowhere. Together, we can get curious about what those experiences are trying to tell you rather than treating them as evidence that something is wrong with you. My style is warm, collaborative, curious, and direct. I won’t simply sit back and ask, “How does that make you feel?” I’ll help you slow things down, notice patterns, make connections, and understand why something makes sense—even when it feels contradictory. Sometimes that means exploring where a belief came from. Sometimes it means learning to tell the difference between anxiety and intuition, understanding what your nervous system is responding to, or realizing that two seemingly opposing feelings can be true at the same time. Ultimately, I want therapy to help you understand yourself well enough to trust yourself. We’ll work toward building a life and relationships that reflect your needs, values, boundaries, identity, and the person you actually want to be—not simply the person you learned you were supposed to be.

I work with adolescents, adults, and couples navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship and family concerns, identity, sexuality, self-esteem, shame, emotional overwhelm, and major life transitions. I particularly enjoy working with people who feel disconnected from themselves, struggle to trust their own thoughts or feelings, or have spent a long time organizing their lives around other people’s expectations. My approach is integrative and person-centered, drawing from CBT, ACT, Narrative Therapy, attachment-informed work, mindfulness, somatic awareness, and other approaches based on what fits the person sitting in front of me. Rather than forcing your experiences into one theory or diagnosis, I’m interested in understanding how you make sense of your world. My practice is LGBTQIA+-affirming, sex-positive, and welcoming of diverse identities, relationship structures, cultures, and spiritual beliefs. I am also pursuing AASECT certification in sex therapy and welcome conversations about sexuality, intimacy, relationships, and identity without judgment or shame.