Hi! My name is Christi. Overwhelmed, exhausted or anxious? Struggling to set boundaries and communicate effectively? Tired of trying to measure up to what's on everyone else's social media page? Is life so chaotic and stressful that it's hard just to get through the day? Well, I commend you for taking the first steps toward a happier, more peaceful and balanced life! Making the choice to create positive change can be difficult, but it's well worth the effort. Drawing from over 20 years of community mental health and private practice clinical experience, my approach utilizes a combination of evidence-based techniques that will be individually tailored to your specific emotional, spiritual and relational needs. Coming from a place of genuine empathy and respect, I'll work to help you find clarity in your situation and redefine issues to make them easier to address. Together, we can identify and implement new skills to better manage stress and anxiety. By building on your strengths, I'd like to help you feel empowered and ready to achieve lasting change. Therapy doesn't have to be a scary or mysterious process. It's just a series of conversations about a subject in which you are a true expert: yourself. You've already taken the first step toward change, just by reaching out. Let's figure out how to get you to where you want to be!

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

The first session will be an overview of the issues that are the most pressing (often what brings someone to seek therapy for the first time) and a discussion of things you wish to work on. Many people leave the first session feeling relieved and unburdened, hopeful of the future, and empowered to begin the change process. I am very interactive and responsive, and give lots of feedback. I like to focus more on what you're doing right. I'm also very flexible, and if at any time you wish to change the direction of therapy and work on new topics and goals as they arise, we can. I always try to be open, respectful, empowering and encouraging. You're the expert on your life, and ultimately the primary beneficiary of your own work, so we focus on what's most important to you.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

My clients tell me that I'm relatable and easy to talk to. I think that might come from a tendency to not see every issue as necessarily pathological. So often, the life circumstances people are experiencing are just as much or more at the root of a problem than a mental illness. Things like depression and anxiety often arise from life circumstances, so mental illness can sometimes be the result of emotional pain, but not necessarily the cause of it. On a personal note, I am a military spouse and mother to two girls on the autism spectrum, so I'm not a stranger to stress, anxiety, grief or depression. Faith is one of the most important things in my own life, so my secret to thriving is taking each day one day at a time and trusting God with the many things I can't control.

About Christi Kersten