My Approach to Helping
Have you been grieving the loss of a loved one, and are tired of friends and family asking if you’re “over it” yet? Perhaps you need a safe place to process all the feelings that come with loss, be it the death of a partner, friend, family member, or pet; or the loss of your marriage, job, faith, physical abilities, or other losses great and small.
Perhaps you’ve been in practicing a faith or spirituality that no longer serves you but you don’t feel comfortable expressing your doubts or asking the questions you’re not “supposed” to ask. Or maybe you’ve experienced wounds or trauma from a religious system that won’t accept your sexual orientation or gender identity and you need a space to process that pain fully.
You might be facing a life transition (such as college graduation, marriage, parenthood, career change, relocation, retirement) and are finding the complexity of emotions difficult to navigate. So often there’s an expectation that you’ll be excited to move to the next life phase and little room is given for expressing the sadness of what’s being left behind.
For couples, are you just beginning your relationship and want to lay a good foundation? Or perhaps you’ve been together for a while and feel stuck in some patterns? Or maybe you’ve experienced a rupture and don’t know how to bring repair to your relationship?
If you resonate with any of the above, I can help! At Journey Steps Counseling, my priority is to create a non-judgmental space where all of your feelings and questions on any topic or issue are welcomed and encouraged to be expressed; we will explore them together with kindness, compassion, and curiosity. I have traveled my own terrains of life transitions, grief and loss, spiritual crisis, childhood trauma, divorce, and more; so I will come alongside you as a fellow sojourner. My style is warm and empathetic, with a bit of humor to lighten the load. Along with “talk therapy,” I use tools such as somatic exercises, parts work, bibliotherapy (books and articles), and other creative approaches to tailor our sessions to your specific needs. For couples, my foundational approach is PACT which focuses on attachment patterns and helps to foster compassion and understanding between partners.