(she/her)
New to Grow
Lorena Mitchell is a licensed clinical social worker committed to a whole-person approach to mental health and recovery. With experience working in both acute hospital settings and community-based settings, Lorena is familiar with the spectrum of mental health services and strives to provide trauma-informed, person-centered, and recovery-oriented therapeutic services. Lorena brings a variety of modalities to her work including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS). Lorena is also a licensed yoga instructor and integrates mindfulness and somatic therapies into her sessions when appropriate. Lorena primarily works with adults experiencing depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and she works with mothers and parents experiencing perinatal mental health challenges. In all her work centers, she centers hope, resilience, and healing.
In your first session with Lorena, you can expect a warm, collaborative space focused on building trust and getting to know one another. Lorena will invite you to share what brings you to therapy, while also taking time to understand your background, strengths, and what matters most to you. Together, you’ll begin identifying goals for your work—shaping them in a way that feels meaningful, realistic, and aligned with your values. Drawing from a trauma-informed, whole-person approach, Lorena moves at your pace and creates space for both reflection and curiosity, helping you feel grounded and supported from the very beginning.
One of Lorena’s greatest strengths is her humility and curiosity, which guide how she connects with others. She approaches each person with openness and a genuine desire to understand their unique experience, while recognizing and uplifting the strengths and inherent resilience present in every individual and situation. Lorena also draws on her lived experience as the daughter of an immigrant, a mother, and someone who has faced her own mental health challenges head on, bringing both empathy and authenticity to her work. This perspective helps create a therapeutic space that feels respectful, empowering, and grounded in the belief that growth and healing are always possible.
Lorena’s ideal clients are adults and older adults seeking individual therapy, particularly those navigating major life transitions such as relationship changes, perinatal shifts, grief, or challenges related to aging. She also enjoys working with people who are ready to explore their relationship with substance use, as well as individuals experiencing depression and anxiety. Her approach is a strong fit for clients who are open to self-reflection, interested in building new skills, and looking to better understand themselves as they move toward a more grounded and meaningful life.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
Lorena uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients identify their core values—their “north star”—and stay connected to what matters most. She supports clients in making space for difficult thoughts and emotions while building skills to take meaningful action aligned with their values, even in the face of challenges.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Lorena uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients recognize patterns between their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Together, you’ll identify unhelpful thinking patterns and develop more balanced, supportive ways of thinking that lead to meaningful changes in how you feel and act.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Lorena integrates mindfulness-based therapy to help clients become more present and grounded in their experiences, especially during moments of stress or overwhelm. As a licensed yoga instructor, she also incorporates somatic awareness and gentle mind-body practices, helping clients notice and connect with physical sensations as a way to support regulation, insight, and healing.
Strength-Based
Lorena uses a strengths-based perspective by focusing on each client’s existing resilience, abilities, and lived experience as key resources for growth and healing. Rather than centering deficits or problems, she helps clients recognize what has helped them survive and adapt, and builds from those strengths to support meaningful change and increased self-trust.
Motivational Interviewing
Lorena uses motivational interviewing to help clients explore ambivalence about change in a supportive, nonjudgmental way. With a history of working with clients in emergency departments and substance use treatment settings, she has seen the power of harnessing our innate motivation for change, especially in moments of crisis. Through reflective listening and collaborative conversation, she helps clients clarify their own reasons for change, strengthen confidence, and move toward goals that feel personally meaningful and aligned with their values.