LCSW, 20 years of experience
Welcome! I am Vanessa Ford, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Since 2003, I have provided therapy and mental health services in community mental health, private practice, and the school setting. I also gained experience in an inpatient unit, ER, nursing homes, and a state residential facility for children as part of my educational/training experience. I have been told my strengths are making clients comfortable to open up and not feel judged. Therapy should be a rewarding process that leaves you with hope each time we end a session together. I provide individual therapy, group therapy, and family therapy. We are going to get real and have some fun on this journey together. My professional experience covers a wide range of conditions and age groups. Whether you are dealing with depression, anxiety, trauma, mood disorders, ADHD, ODD, or Disruptive Behavior Disorder, I am here to help. We will utilize evidence-based practices together, such as CBT, EMDR, DBT, solution focused, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. I am ready to listen to your concerns and share my bag of therapy tools to apply towards living your best life. Is every day going to be the best? Absolutely not! Who are we kidding? During our sessions, you will gain a new skill set and have more hope and confidence to get through even the toughest days. When we choose to improve our personal lives, it tends to spread to those around us. Let's get started!
During our first session together, I will walk you through the intake process. We will cover questions to help me better understand your therapy journey. By the end of that session, we will both leave the session understanding your goals for therapy and a couple tools to get you started.
Every journey is different. Your treatment plan will be tailored to your specific needs and what works best for you.
My strengths are working with teens, young adults, women, and families. I have a long history of running behavior groups, teen groups, and parenting groups. I commonly have assisted parents build plans to strengthen the bonds with their children and decrease behavior issues. I ran DBT groups for years to assist those living with Borderline Personality Disorder. I am very passionate about EMDR therapy as I have watched so many improve their quality of life, after suffering from residual effects of traumatic experiences. Last, but not least, individual and group therapy for anxiety and depression.
If you were to ask me what clients seem to fit best with my therapy style and personality, I would say women, children, teens, young adults, parents, and families. Clients experiencing trauma, anxiety, and depression are what I assisted the most over the last decade.