Stephanie Bardales, LMFT - Therapist at Grow Therapy

Stephanie Bardales

Stephanie Bardales

(she/her)

LMFT
7 years of experience
Empowering
Warm
Direct
Virtual

Greetings! Let's take a moment to reflect on the courage it takes to begin therapy. You are brave. Change is hard, but the rewards of healing from distress, trauma and disconnect are powerful. As are you! I have experience helping people with trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, bereavement, loss, family/relationship conflicts, self-harm, anger management, parenting, child welfare system, foster care, adoption, school transitions, divorce, abortion, survivors of narcissism, career changes, stigmatized experiences and other major life changes. I can assist you identify patterns and help break the multigenerational trauma cycle and create new patterns to help you find fulfillment in your life. I love working with people from all ages and walks of life. I am happy to work with you at your pace and challenge you when you are ready. I am happy to make accommodations as requested. I will ensure you have a safe space to process and complete the work that needs to be done to make therapy successful. I pride myself in maintaining a strong work ethic, staying well organized, focused and applying strong self-care interventions. I work 4 jobs, 7 days a week, morning until night. I will do my absolute best to ensure our sessions begin and end on time. However, due to the nature of this career, there are occassions where I may be delayed with another person to evaluate for additional interventions (therapists are mandated reporters in Florida). Please keep this in mind when considering mental health services. If delays do occur, I apologize in advance. I will make sure you receive the best therapeutic services I have to offer. I understand life happens. Let's make healing happen. I look forward to meeting you.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

Discuss what is currently affecting you and finding solutions to help cope with difficulties. Identify trauma patterns and behavioral cycles. Identify solutions and strengths that currently work and do not work. We can discuss your goals and steps needed to make progress. All of your experiences, feelings and thoughts are valid. No experience is underminded. No feeling is minimized. You are welcome to express yourself and discuss stigmatized experiences. Your decisions based on consent, cutting off toxic people, establishing boundaries and women's rights to abortion are valuable and validated. However you want to process your experiences are unique to you.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

I have personal experience with family conflict, trauma, loss, grief, separation, family estrangement, self-harm, abortion, childhood abuse/neglect, surviving narcissistic abuse, working in the foster care system, adoption from foster care, volunteering in the child welfare system, parenting, navigating ethnic/racial identity formation, healthy relationships, self-care and other personal adversities. I believe my experiences with adversity and hardship help me to truly understand and connect with my clients. When I say that I understand, I mean it. I will help you get comfortable with the uncomfortable, at your own pace.

About Stephanie Bardales

Specializes in

Anger ManagementAnxietyFoster Care/AdoptionSelf EsteemSexual AbuseTrauma and PTSD

Licensed in

Appointments

Virtual

My treatment methods

Attachment-based

John Bowlby based. Emphasis on the parent to take accountability to develop and maintain emotional connection and communication with child.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Integration of 5 senses, internal experiences and emotional experiences. Various grounding skills expore to identify which coping skills are most effective for each individual.

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

Reinforcement & extinguishing behaviors. Identifying factors that contribute to unwanted and desirable behaviors. Exploring ideal qualities desired.

Trauma-Focused CBT

Reinforcement based with trauma experiences. Developing awareness for unhealthy (reg flags) versus healthy (green flags) behaviors.

Solution Focused Brief Treatment

Identifying strengths and needs. Emphasis on factors that maintain healthy boundaries, rules, guidelines within relationships. Scaling various emotions, to quantify experiences.