Salter Giddens
Starting with the initial consultation, I begin helping my clients clarify their goals for treatment, identify any potential obstacles to achieving those goals, and together we begin creating a treatment plan for success. My style is empathic, candid, and direct. I listen intently, but I also ask questions, I explore, I provide real, authentic feedback, and I use humor…I love to laugh!
Starting with the initial consultation, I help my clients clarify their goals for treatment, identify any potential obstacles to achieving those goals, and we begin creating a plan for success.
First session
I hope my clients leave their first session feeling some relief and comfort because they have been heard and seen. I want them to feel safe. I hope they have laughed. I hope I offer some thought, perspective or question that provokes curiosity and I hope they want to explore further. Whether I'm working with individuals, couples or families, my approach is much the same. I help assembles the pieces they bring into session into a clearer picture of their experiences, and work collaboratively with them to help move them in the direction that they choose.
Strengths
Primarily, my role is to help my clients understand the meaning and the impact of their experiences and recognize patterns, even when they may not want to see them. Understanding our past experiences, along with identifying our core beliefs and values, lead to clarity and contentment...I help my clients explore all of this. I practice individual, couples, family, DBT therapy, as well as EMDR trauma-based therapy. My practice is LGBTQ affirmative, informed, and supportive. I provide telehealth, and I have early morning, evening, and weekend session availability. Thank you!
Ideal clients
My ideal client can be any client really..anyone who is curious about themselves, open to exploring their thoughts, feelings and experiences. There's no need to have answers or even know exactly what they hope to accomplish in therapy--we can figure all that out together. I enjoy human beings from all backgrounds and I want to help them better understand themselves and find their sense of purpose--whatever that may be...and everyone has one!
Origin story
I had been in therapy for several years myself when I realized I wanted to pursue becoming a therapist. Therapy was a language that just made since to me, and my experience with my therapist was life changing. Ultimately I became a therapist for one simple reason: I wanted to offer to others the same healing, growth and transformation that my own therapist had given me.
Ongoing work together
Human beings are amazing, complex individuals, and my relationship with no two clients is alike. But as we work together, we develop a shared language and history that allows us to recognize patterns, make connections and explore deeply. Each session builds on our relationship and that history allowing the work to deepen and evolve. Progress in therapy will look different for each client. For some it's worry less, feeling more, feeling confident, motivated, feeling their anger, feeling their grief, becoming more comfortable with uncertainty. Progress is not always about feeling better. But progress in therapy is always about understand yourself better.
Treatment methods
EMDR
Sometimes what we feel doesn't match what we know to be true. We may understand something intellectually but still struggle with feelings, reactions or beliefs that don't seem to make sense--in simpler words..."I know this to be true, but I feel this anyway." I use EMDR to help clients explore how past experiences may be influencing their present lives. Together, we identify and work through those experiences, reducing their emotional impact and helping what we feel become more aligned with what we know and understand.
Integrative
My approach to therapy is integrative, drawing from a variety of therapeutic methods depending on the individual and what they need in the moment. Over more that 16 years of providing therapy, I've learned that no single approach works for everyone or every situation. Sometimes I'm exploring past experiences and relationships with clients, and other times it's about understanding emotions, changing patterns and developing new skills or finding motivation. I draw on my experience to use the approaches that best serve each client's unique needs rather than trying to fit the person into a particular method.
Attachment-based
Attachment based therapy helps client's explore how their experiences in relationships, particularly early relationships, influence the ways they connect with others today. Together , we look at patterns in relationships with partners, family and friends, gaining a better understanding of needs, fears and expectations. The awareness that is gained, can help clients develop healthier, more secure and more fulfilling connections with others.
Location
Virtual sessions