Sandra Paolini, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Have important parts of your life stopped working the way you want, no matter how hard you try to change? Maybe you find yourself making choices you don’t want to make, pulling back from what matters, or reacting in ways that leave you wondering, “Why can’t I fix this?” Over time, this can erode your confidence and leave you wondering whether anything will ever change. And when so much energy goes into managing what keeps happening, there’s less room for the people, choices, and experiences you care about. Therapy can help you get to the root of what is driving the struggle, loosen its hold, and begin reclaiming more of your life. I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), helping adults feel more confident and less controlled by fear or difficult emotions. We zero in on what keeps the struggle going, build your ability to respond with more choice, and practice new responses so difficult thoughts and feelings have less power to pull you away from what truly matters. I also integrate nervous system-based approaches and offer small therapeutic groups. I know what it’s like to feel trapped by something you can’t seem to change. That experience is part of why I do this work. My approach is active, direct, and focused on helping change become something you can actually live—not just understand. If you’re looking for that kind of therapy, I’d be glad to talk.

Most people come to therapy because they want something to change. They want to feel less afraid, less overwhelmed, more confident, and more able to live without the problem taking up so much space. I take that seriously. We start with what is getting in the way, how it is affecting your life, and what you want to change. My work is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an approach that helps us zero in on what keeps the struggle going and builds your ability to respond with more choice. The goal isn't simply to understand the problem better, but to help you experience real differences in the moments that matter—when fear shows up, when emotions run high, when you want to avoid something, or when an old reaction starts to take over. As therapy progresses, we practice new ways of responding so that difficult thoughts and feelings have less power to pull you away from what truly matters. That means feeling more confident in making decisions, taking steps you have been avoiding, staying present when emotions are strong, and making more room in your life for the people and experiences you care about. I also pay attention to what happens in the body and nervous system because those reactions often begin before conscious thought and can quickly intensify fear, avoidance, or overwhelm. Recognizing them earlier can help you understand what is happening, interrupt the automatic response, and change what happens next. I want therapy to lead somewhere. Insight matters, but so does what becomes possible because of it: greater freedom, greater confidence, and greater ability to live according to what genuinely matters to you.