Alison Voyer
About
I am a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience in the profession, beginning my career as a medical social worker before moving into the mental health field 11 years ago. Over the course of those 11 years, I have worked in a community mental health setting.
One of my strongest assets as a therapist is my ability to show up as myself and form a relationship based on collaboration and authenticity.
This has afforded me the opportunity to develop the skills needed to work with a wide range of ages, populations, and challenges as well as to develop specialties in the areas of anxiety, depression, adjustment, and trauma.
First session
My first session with a client is spent getting to know them, exploring what is bringing them into therapy, and what they hope to achieve. Clients can expect a very conversational style with times of more direction and structure when needed. I also appreciate highlighting a client's strength and resiliency. Conversations around client strengths can be just as important as conversations around challenges.
Strengths
One of my strongest assets as a therapist is my ability to show up as myself and form a relationship based on collaboration and authenticity. I truly enjoy getting to know my clients, hearing their stories and learning who they are as people. I also consider myself a life long learner and believe strongly that it is a therapist's responsibility to never stop learning.
Ideal clients
Starting therapy can be both daunting and exciting. I know that for some, making that first contact can be a difficult step and it is vital that as a helping professional, I respond with care and respect. My role as therapist comes with a lot of responsibility and I strive to do my very best for those coming to me for help. I hope to create a warm and safe environment, fostering both reflection and curiosity in a effort to better understand themselves and their path forward. Many times, unhelpful beliefs hold us back from moving in the direction we are hoping for in our life. I enjoy helping clients look at these unhelpful beliefs and patterns, moving to what they want more of in their life.
Treatment methods
Eclectic
I typically draw from a wide variety of approaches, blending and tailoring approaches to what would best suit my client. This is a personalized approach where I take client preferences and needs to form an effective treatment approach. Several of these approaches are described below.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
CBT has a lot to offer clients in its ability to illustrate that often how we perceive events, situations, etc have a lot to do with how we feel and how we respond. CBT teaches us to notice patterns in our thinking and the helpfulness, utility, and accuracy of these patterns. In the face of social anxiety, CBT might encourage us to turn toward the anxiety in a gradual fashion, showing us that not only can we handle the fear but that the fear may not be as dangerous as we thought.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
ACT can also offer client a great deal in terms of noticing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. But rather than focus on changing thoughts, ACT encourages people to accept that we will have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings but that these should not keep us from moving the direction we want to go. I encourage the mindfulness nature of this approach as well as the focus on values and moving in the direction of what we value.
Attachment-based
I am a firm believer that our upbringing and early relationships influence how we show up as the people we do today. In therapy, I will often explore the quality/security of those early life attachments as well as the core beliefs that develop our of these relationships.
EMDR
EMDR works very well in combination with the therapies described above. I often use EMDR in my work with clients with a trauma history but also find it helpful with anyone struggling to cope with unhelpful beliefs about self. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to process distressing memories associated with these unhelpful beliefs and install more adaptive beliefs.
Location
Virtual sessions