Hi, I'm Heather, pronouns she/they! I'm an LCSW and I have 10+ years of experience providing mental health therapy to individuals, couples, and families. My experience working with people who are neurodivergent has allowed me to help them work through feeling stuck, unheard, and/or trapped within our system of social norms and unrealistic expectations. I identify as queer and have worked with clients in all stages of recognizing their queerness. I also have experience working with those who have experienced trauma whether due to their sexuality, abusive relationships, upbringing, or otherwise. I offer virtual therapy sessions, walk-and-talks (therapy where we meet in public but maintain privacy and get our steps in by walking while we talk), and in-home therapy sessions. I do not have a brick and mortar client location; if you are not meeting me virtually we are meeting in public or in your home. In-home appointments will have an additional fee. The address listed on this profile is the most common place clients tend to want to meet for walk-and-talks; but I am more than open to meeting in other public, yet private, locations.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session, we will introduce ourselves to each other and I will allow for you to inform me if you had any specific goals or concerns to address in the first session. After that we will cover some "housekeeping" items; such as your rights and responsibilities. Once we have completed that I will use a list of questions that I have compiled, over the last decade, in order to get to know you and identify where you currently stand in your life. As this will be the first time you have met me, I attempt to keep things relatively light and don't ask or expect you to go into your deepest darkest concerns or traumas. If clients are comfortable going there in the first session, I am absolutely capable of doing so, but I never expect a client to share anything they are uncomfortable with no matter what number session we are in.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
While it may be considered questionable by some practitioners to self-disclose I do believe one my greatest strengths as a therapist is my ability to relate with my clients. Life has not been easy for me and when it is appropriate I will self-disclose with my clients. This is never an attempt to take control of the session but to help you feel validated, less alone, and more hopeful about making it to a place where you can truly love and enjoy your own life. I am neurodivergent, queer, and non-binary so I have a lot of life experiences that are similar to the life experiences of clients who have struggled to connect with other therapists.
About Heather McGovern
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Address
5100 North 9th Avenue, Pensacola, FL, USAAppointments
Virtual & in-personMy treatment methods
Eclectic
We will work together to determine what treatment method will work specifically for you. We will consider your symptoms, what has worked and not worked in the past, your strengths, your limitations, your cultural background, and other variables specific to you as an individual. Treatment techniques will be pulled from multiple modalities such as CBT, Attachment-based Therapy, ACT, DBT, Family and Couple's Therapy, Gender-affirming Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Strength-based Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, and Trauma Informed Care.
Trauma Informed Care
Working together we will ensure that all methods and approaches are viewed through a trauma "lens." Should certain aspects of different therapies be triggering we will not focus on that unless it is helpful and the client is ready to use skills to work through a potential trauma response.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Using CBT we will work together to identify how your thoughts and feelings affect your behaviors. We will work to help you see that your thoughts and feelings are not who you are as a person and can be controlled and changed in order to benefit you, as an individual. This will help you feel more in control of your thought process and behaviors within your every day life.
Motivational Interviewing
During the course of therapy I will ask you questions geared to make you think about your own motivations and goals. When you answer these questions we can get closer to identifying contradicting thoughts/behaviors that are interfering with your ability to meet your goals.
Narrative
We will work together to identify the narrative that is occurring in your mind re: your life and how you are living it. Using different narrative skills we can rewrite your narrative in a way that helps you move forward feeling more safe and in control of your life.