Hello, I’m Olivia. Do you feel overwhelmed by stress at work, home, or in relationships? Do you feel you have lost motivation and are not living up to your potential? Are you ready to restore hope and experience a sense of joy and accomplishment again? I help people close the gap between the life they have and the life they want. I work with adults whose emotional experiences, such as sadness, anxiety, grief, and loneliness, are interfering with their quality of life. We take a motivational interviewing approach in therapy to strengthen your own motivation and commitment to change. This involves identifying your values and considering whether and how you might make changes to live more consistently with your values. Perhaps you want to learn practical and healthy ways of coping with stress or navigating complex interpersonal relationships. Perhaps you need help implementing these strategies consistently and effectively. Wherever you are, I meet you where you’re at.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
A warm and trusting therapeutic relationship is crucial for successful therapy and we will begin building this relationship during our first interaction. Together, we will use a collaborative and integrative approach to understanding what is contributing to your distress and learning new strategies to intervene. Since you are the expert on you, I will welcome your feedback about what is working and not working throughout the therapy process. During the concluding phase of therapy, you will have found improvement in your mood over a consistent period of time and will be actively working towards your own life goals and living a life consistent with your values. You will feel confident in your ability to cope with future stressful experiences and life changes.
What treatment methods and tools do you utilize?
The foundation of my practice is rooted within the principles of motivational interviewing, which is summarized as strengthening your own motivation and commitment to change. Instead of asking “Why are you not motivated to change?” we focus on answering the question, “For WHAT are you motivated to change?” Together, we will integrate evidence-based treatments and your preferences to create an individual, culturally responsive, and comprehensive treatment plan. For example, by taking a cognitive-behavioral approach, we can explore how your patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving may be helpful or unhelpful for reaching your goals. We can also implement skills outlined in dialectical behavior therapy to increase your effectiveness in interpersonal relationships
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I have worked as a therapist in hospitals, outpatient clinics, and jails and have had the pleasure of working with individuals with various marginalized and intersecting identities. I have worked with clients from a wide range of levels of functioning, from incarcerated individuals with severe and persistent mental illness to high-functioning adults focused on personal growth. These experiences have required patience, flexibility, and, above-all, non-judgmental compassion for my clients.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
Adults with symptoms of depression, stress, anxiety, and grief. Adults adjusting to major life changes or experiencing relationship problems.