LISW, 14 years of experience
New to Grow
I hold a Master’s Degree in Social Work from The Ohio State University and have over a decade of experience as an in-home family therapist, a school-based mental health clinician, a social work care coordinator in a medical setting, and individual therapy. I have experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families. My values are adventure, honesty, integrity, and quality time with friends and family. On any given day off, you will catch me watching the Columbus Crew, exploring a new place, playing board games, gardening, or reading a book. I am married and a mother of one kiddo.
The first session is getting to know you and why you chose to take the big step to engage in counseling. I always start out with "Tell me what made you reach out?" It can feel all over the place, that you may be rambling, but I promise I am getting the information that I need to understand your story. You are not the only one experiencing symptoms. I look for themes to help understand broad categories to help figure out the best way to help. This can look like anxiety, depression, AD/HD, trauma, grief, and/or life transitions. After that, I want to work together to set goals. I would like you to think through the miracle question: "If you could wave a magic wand, what would you want to happen, to be like, etc." From there I break it down to smaller steps to get to that end goal. I am very curious about what is preventing you from getting to your end goal. To figure that out, I am all about sequencing out the environment, thoughts, emotions, urges, physical sensations, and behavior. I have tools that can interrupt this process at any part of that sequence. When meeting, my intro question into a session is typically "how has it been since that last time we met." What I am really asking and listening for is, how was practicing a skill; is there anything you want to talk about; what is your headspace. I will use what is happening in your here and now to help look for areas to practice new skills. I will also be listening for over arching patterns or "rules" that may be playing out. Our brains like patterns, but sometimes they can become outdated. You may want new ones or small tweaks to the old ones. What I cannot stress enough, is if I go off in a direction that you don't want to go, please say something. This is your time, your goals. If you don't think something will be helpful, let me know why.
Being curious and having a teamwork approach helps people move forward faster towards their goals and values. You are the subject matter expert of your life, not me. I don't like being told what to do, so I will be very hesitant to say "just do this." My brain is like a very well organized bookshelf. I have years of training in different methods (books), and can run with different interventions without needing to have a script or worksheet in front of me. Even if you go into a different direction, I typically will have a suggestion for "a book" or intervention to work through. Metaphors and visualizations are a go to tool for me. It helps give you space between thoughts and emotions that may be hard to touch or hold. I am not just about symptom management. I want to be able to understand what could be the root issue to heal and break that ineffective pattern. A good example is anger. Anger gets labeled as a bad emotion. Anger isn't bad. The behaviors that come from the emotion can have a negative impact, but anger itself is not bad. It's there for a reason. It's has been functional and protective. If I help you make your anger go away, it may come out stronger because you won't be protected. Looking at what happened leading up to you getting angry is at the heart of the solution.
Hi there! My name is Natalie, and I'm here to help you become unstuck by actively listening and working with you as a team. To help you discover who you are at your best, I try to create an open, non-judgmental, safe environment. I use open-ended questions to identify barriers that keep you from being your authentic self. This could be thoughts, emotions, urges, or things in your environment. I focus on helping you develop assertive communication & boundaries with yourself and those around you to improve your quality of life. Counseling can foster personal development in whatever way you may be seeking and help build the life you so deeply deserve. If that's what you're looking for, I'm here when you're ready to share.
I focus on where you are stuck and look at patterns. ACT has tools to work with thoughts, emotions, mindfulness, values clarification, and committed action. I use this approach in a non-judgmental, curious way to help normalize thoughts and emotions to help drop the struggle. Behavior is protective and functional. ACT skills help me to understand the why to then have you think through actions that are aligned with your values.
Not everyone has a linear path with progress. Sometimes progress moves forward, and sometimes there is a regression. Motivational Interviewing helps me assess your Stage of Change to be able to meet you where you are at in your life. This method helps me understand what activities between sessions could be helpful with more accuracy being open, curious, and reflective.
When emotions are really intense and it's hard to think, Dialectical Behavioral skills are my go-to for distress tolerance and emotional regulation. Not all coping skills are the same when it comes to different emotions. I use this model to help match coping skills for different levels of distress. I use DBT skills as a launching point for interpersonal skills and navigating difficult relationships.
I bring in Solution Focused Brief Therapy skills to help figure out what is working to be able to build on progress. Sometimes it is easier to look at what is going well and figure out how to build on that success through small steps. The miracle question helps me understand your end goals better. Scaling helps me measure the likelihood of follow through with a task outside of session or breaking the task down to something more manageable.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to work on executive functioning skills like planning, organization, procrastination, and many more. CBT and ACT are very similar because both are a cognitive therapy approach. When dealing with thoughts, I use more of the ACT skills which incorporate CBT skills.