(she/her)
Often rebooked
Hi, my name is Vanessa, and I am a licensed professional counselor in the state of Pennsylvania. I believe in treating clients as co-creators in their therapeutic process. I strive to create an affirming, non-judgmental, and empathetic environment for my clients to express themselves authentically. The therapeutic process involves utilizing cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, and self-compassion practices to facilitate processing, understanding, and connecting with oneself and emotions. I specialize in Autism Spectrum, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, trauma-related disorders,&anxiety disorders. I provide in-depth assessments, track progress, and make adjustments as needed. I have had extensive cultural training and find fulfillment in providing my clients with an open, accepting, and encouraging environment. My passion is to see others succeed, which makes counseling a fulfilling activity for me. If you have read this far, I want to work with you. I intend that you come to a space where you are seen in a way that is contrary to what you have experienced. Reach out!
In our first session together, we will explore your experiences and background to gain a deeper understanding of you. Additionally, I will share my professional experience. I also like to give my clients a coping tool in the first session to help elevate anxiety.
**What I Bring to Our Work Together** I specialize in working with neurodivergent women — particularly those who are late-diagnosed or self-identifying with ADHD or autism, who've spent years masking, or who are only now understanding why traditional approaches to therapy or self-help never quite fit. I also work extensively with dissociative disorders (DID, OSDD) and complex trauma. This isn't a general practice with a specialty tacked on. It's the focus of my clinical training, my continuing education, and honestly, a lot of my own lived understanding. Research on therapeutic outcomes consistently identifies one of the strongest predictors of good therapy: how well a client believes their therapist actually understands the specific shape of their experience (Wampold's contextual model of psychotherapy and decades of alliance research by Norcross and Lambert both point to this). For clients who've been misdiagnosed, dismissed, or told their struggles were "just anxiety" or "just being sensitive," working with someone who has deep, specific fluency in their actual experience changes what's possible in the room. I draw on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and trauma-informed care together, rather than applying one framework rigidly across every client. People are not formulas, and the research bears this out — work on therapist expertise (Goldfried's writing on integrative practice, among others) suggests that flexible, well-integrated case conceptualization tends to outperform strict adherence to a single manualized approach, especially with complex presentations like dissociation and developmental trauma. An Integrated Approach, Not a Single Formula In practice, this means I'm tracking your nervous system state alongside your relational history alongside your present-day patterns: not picking one lens and staying there. Understanding That Comes From More Than a Textbook My own neuropsychological testing as a child showed strong verbal and auditory strengths alongside significant variability across other areas — a profile that didn't make sense to anyone at the time, including me. That early experience of being a person who didn't fit the expected boxes has shaped how I understand and sit with clients whose experiences don't fit neatly either. It's not the same as your story, but it means I'm not coming to this work as a stranger to the disorientation of being misunderstood. Making the Research Usable I believe psychoeducation is part of treatment, not a side note to it. Helping you understand *why* your nervous system responds the way it does, or *why* rejection sensitivity shows up the way it does in ADHD, isn't just interesting: it's clinically supported. Psychoeducation has a real evidence base as a component of trauma treatment, and in my experience, understanding the "why" behind a pattern often loosens its grip faster than simply naming it as a problem to fix, If you're looking for a therapist who understands neurodivergence and dissociation from the inside out, who won't hand you a generic framework and hope it fits, and who blends research with real relational attunement: that's the work I do, and it's the work I care most about.
I prefer working with adults. However, I have extensive experience working with adolescents and adults, including in community mental health settings, private practice, and school environments.
Other specialties
I identify as
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use CBT to help clients understand the intersection of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. I utilize coping skills such as cognitive restructuring and relaxation skill to help clients reframe their faulty thinking that could be increasing suffering.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP)
This treatment modality is to treat those suffering with obsessive compulsive disorder. This treatment modality includes exposure experiences.
Feminist
We all carry multiple identities and I used this framework to understand clients.
Gender-affirming therapy
All of us have multiple identities which are important to address as they interact with each other and contribute to our mental health
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
This modality is used for those individuals who want to make sense of their trauma narratives.