(She/Her)
Hi I'm Kelsey, and I'm glad you are here :) In my practice, I lead with compassion and a deeply rooted perspective that each of us is the expert in our own lives. We each possess within us the innate strengths needed to move through our own challenges, but as relational beings we thrive when we draw on the expertise and support of many others to help us along our life's journey. No one can or should take the journey alone! I hope to be one of those "others" for you. I have over a decade of experience providing therapy and crisis intervention to individuals and families across the lifespan seeking to improve their current circumstances as it relates to trauma, relational difficulties, life transitions, grief, mental health, and substance use concerns.
Our first session will focus on meeting one another, exploring your therapy goals, and seeing if working together is a good fit! I will answer any questions you have and hope to put you at ease throughout the process.
My greatest strength is in connecting with others. The foundation of all good psychotherapy is the relationship we have with our therapist. Creating safety, warmth, trust, and compassion within our therapeutic relationship will be most important. I don't subscribe to therapy in which someone pays me to listen to them for an hour every week to no avail. I want to help you achieve your therapy goals, and so in addition to plenty of compassion and listening, I will offer psychoeducation, evidence-based strategies, and tangible solutions.
I work with all persons who are curious to tackle issues related to anxiety, depression, grief, self-esteem, major life transitions, new onset mental health diagnoses or following a first psychiatric hospitalization, those who are struggling with a relationship in their life, self-esteem, feeling lonely, or lost, those struggling with addiction, misuse, or are "sober curious," caregivers and loved ones of someone with serious mental illness or addiction concerns who are seeking supportive guidance, and anyone who wants to take a closer look at how their past experiences may be showing up in their present in distressing or unhelpful ways.
Kelsey Gilbert offers therapy covered by Kaiser Permanente - Medicaid and UnitedHealthcare/Optum - Medicaid in Virginia.
CBT is considered the bread and butter of good "talk therapy" or psychotherapy and is effective in treating anxiety, depression, and other conditions. If you've ever heard the saying, "Don't believe everything you think," we will instead consider your thoughts as “clues” to how you can start feeling better and behaving in ways that are more aligned with your vision.
In my practice, being trauma-informed *begins* with creating a safe space and asking questions from the lens of, "What happened to you?" rather than "What is wrong with you?" but goes much further than that. I have been working with individuals with various trauma histories for over a decade and bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to support your healing journey. You deserve to live your best life, whatever that looks like for you!
Therapy is for YOU, and so I love to draw from a wide array of helpful literature, techniques, and frameworks that will best help you to reach your goals. Therapy can be hard work, but it can also be a place of joy, connection, and humor.