Ariel Swanson
Hi, I'm Ariel Swanson, LCSW. I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who believes therapy should feel both supportive and productive. I work with individuals navigating anxiety, trauma, and life transitions, helping them make sense of their experiences and move forward with more clarity and confidence.
At every session I will ask you, “what’s going on?” I’m able to sit back and let you talk through your stressors with guided prompts or I can be more directive and challenging.
I bring a mix of compassion, honesty, and gentle challenge, because growth usually requires all three.
First session
Our first session is really just about getting a feel for you, what’s been going on and what led you here. You set the pace. You don’t have to share everything all at once. I know therapy can feel a little uncomfortable at first, so I focus on making it feel more natural, like a real conversation, not an interrogation.
Strengths
My sessions are warm, inviting, and grounded in real conversation. I’ll often start with something simple like, “what’s going on?” and go from there. I can sit back and give you space to process with gentle guidance, or I can be more direct and challenge patterns when it’s helpful. We’ll talk about what you’re looking for in therapy early on so I can meet you where you are. If you’re coming in with a long list of goals, we’ll slow it down and focus on one or two at a time so the work actually feels meaningful and manageable. We’ll start building goals in our first session and continue to refine them as needed, then move forward step by step.
Ideal clients
I tend to work best with clients who are overwhelmed, overthinking, or carrying a lot internally but don’t always know how to process it. You might be used to holding it together on the outside while feeling anxious, stuck, or disconnected on the inside. My ideal client is someone who’s ready for things to feel different, even if that feels a little uncomfortable at first. You don’t have to be “good at therapy,” just willing to show up and be real.
Treatment methods
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
I love DBT because of its emphasis on interpersonal skills and radical acceptance at its core. We can’t always change the way things are but we can learn to pivot and cope.
Solution-Focused Brief Treatment
Let’s set goals and figure out where we need to go to achieve them. Solution focused brief therapy allows us to prioritize one or two goals and hone in on making positive changes and improvements.
Strength-Based
We want to focus on empowering you, identifying your strengths and using those to move forward in your journey to recovery.
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma is so unique to every individual and being trauma informed in practice is imperative.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing is a modality that allows us to take negative memories impacting us to the core and reprocess those to take the "sting" out of them.
Location
Virtual sessions