LPCC, 4 years of experience
Hello! I'm Shaleah Schmidt. Take a moment to acknowledge you've taken the first step towards bettering your mental health because, let's be honest, starting therapy can be confusing, scary, and empowering, all at the same time. I focus on creating a safe and welcoming environment that allows clients to explore obstacles with concerns including but not limited to anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, mood disorder, personality disorders, and OCD. I strive to help clients develop the right tools to help become the best version of themselves. Counseling can foster personal development in whatever way you may be seeking and help build the life you would like to achieve. If that's what you are looking for, I am here for you when you are ready to share your story.
Together we will identify current challenges and what you want to accomplish to become the best version of yourself. Being a human is extremely difficult and not one person reacts to stressors in the same way. There will always be room for suggestions concerning our work together and I am always appreciative of open communication of what you want your treatment to look like. You'll leave the session with an overall better understanding of what you are experiencing, both negatively and positively.
I strive towards making sure you are number one on your priority list. Everyone has a story to tell and it is my job to help you feel comfortable with sharing that story. I am often very transparent as a clinician because having another story to help validate your experiences, is sometimes all a person needs to have in order to feel seen and heard.
I enjoy working with teenagers, adolescents, and young adults. My clients are willing to create goals while also making sure to take time to be mindful of how progress will show in the smallest of ways. Together I can help my clients decrease symptoms including but not limited to anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and low self-esteem.
I am a clinician who enjoys communicating with a client about goals to accomplish each week. Goal setting creates a sense of hope and helps formulate a motivation sense of desired behavioral change. I often use solution focused brief treatment with individuals, families, and couples. SFBT helps clients with symptoms diagnoses including but not limited to anxiety, depression, trauma, adjustment, ADHD, behavioral, and OCD.
Couples counseling explores the conflicts between any partners and is frequently short-term. I focus on specific problems between couples and create goals catered to the couples needs to increase a positive relationship. I have experience of working with couples not only on healing their marriage but also helping them go through difficult situations such as divorce or custody disagreements. Every type of relationship whether it's friends, family, and significant others, has bumps in the road that needs tending to. I have a lot of experience and expertise to provide clients wanting to heal their relationship.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of therapy treatment that helps an individual identify how their thoughts interact with their emotions and behaviors. With CBT I often utilize mindfulness techniques to help increase mind and body connection. Mindfulness helps an individual formulate how our environment creates specific thoughts causing our brain to initiate specific emotions and behaviors. CBT is a very effective use of treatment for individuals, families and couples with symptoms or diagnoses including but not limited to anxiety, depression, substance use, eating disorders, severe mental illness, and behaviors.
Attachment based therapy focuses on developing or rebuilding trust between a client and their relationships (friends, family, clinician, significant others). I utilize attachment-based practices by exploring with a client symptoms or diagnoses including but not limited to anxiety, trauma, relational problems, unidentified moods, and communication problems. Attachment based theory is something I use for individual, family, and couples.
Family therapy is primarily focused on improving relationships within a family unit. I have experience utilizing family therapy with foster families, nuclear ("ideal") families, extended families, and stepfamilies. I often use methods of CBT, Attachment-based, and SBFT to help families communicate and address issues affecting family members' mental health.