Hello and welcome! Entering therapy can be daunting, you're entering into a "room" where you share vulnerable and deep parts of yourself with a stranger and I just want to acknowledge that this takes courage and a desire for deep and true healing. I do not take this for granted and feel truly privileged to step into the lives of each individual no matter what you are bringing to the table! It is through this vulnerability that we can work together to find your path towards healing and wholeness. My name is Valerie, and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor blessed to be in this work for a decade. I work with children, teens, and women dealing with self-esteem, depression, anxiety, relational issues, grief or life adjustments, eating disorders, chronic illness and trauma from a faith-based approach and integrating psychological insight, tools, and strategies. With my dedicated and collective focus on serving these groups, my practice is not best suited to work with men at this time. My work is compassionate, curious, challenging, patient, and brave with highlights of humor. I love this work, love being a person who can hold the tough stuff, to provide support, to find connections that help connect some dots, but most of all, I love getting to celebrate and rejoice in the victories, the healing and watching you bloom into your fullest self. The confident, skilled, effective communicator, boundary builder and holder, emotion regulating pro who has peace, hope, calm, joy and loves themselves.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In the first session, my goal is to get to know you, what brought you to therapy and to identify what you you'd like to experience differently in your daily life. I would love to know what you have tried, what has helped and even what hasn't been helpful. Learning about you, your story, your life experiences is important to help me hear your heart, understand your concerns and work together to build a plan with goals you want to accomplish. I also take some time to complete brief review of your paperwork and give time for any questions or concerns you may have.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I have the ability to connect and foster a working relationship with clients fairly easily. I feel I am a genuine and down to earth person, I have a keen observational mind, I retain information well and I have been told by clients that I share thoughts, ideas or insights with grace, compassion, humility and hope. Integrating appropriate humor is also something that you may find in session. While I enjoy integrating prayer or scripture into sessions for those client's that are interested in bringing their faith into session, I have also had the privilege to work with individuals from different ethnic, cultural and faith backgrounds and been able to provide all with a safe and effective space for therapeutically beneficial understanding, growth and healing.