Kelly Hoskins
Hi, I’m Kelly. I’ve been working in mental health for over ten years, and one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t need another person talking at you like a doctor, teacher, or expert who has your life all figured out. You need someone who can meet you where you are, understand what you’re going through, and help you figure out where you want to go from there. I work with teens and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and personality disorders, with a particular interest in Borderline Personality Disorder. I’m trained in TF-CBT, DBT, and Somatic Experiencing, and I’m IFS-informed. I draw from these approaches based on what actually makes sense for you rather than forcing everyone into the same treatment model. My style is warm, direct, conversational, and human. I take the clinical side of therapy seriously, but I don’t want therapy to feel clinical. I want you to feel like you’re talking to a real person who happens to know a lot about mental health. I’m unapologetically anti-racist and deeply committed to supporting Black and Brown communities. I have extensive experience working with these communities and believe that race, culture, identity, and lived experience belong in the therapy room. I also recognize that racism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, economic inequality, and immigration policy can have very real effects on our mental health. I’m gay myself and genuinely enjoy working with LGBTQ+ clients. Whether you’re navigating identity, relationships, family, minority stress, or just want a therapist who gets some of the context you’re coming from, you’re welcome here. Most importantly, you don’t have to show up as a “better” version of yourself. Bring the messy parts. We’ll start there.
First session
Your first session is really about getting to know each other and figuring out whether we’re a good fit. We’ll talk about what brought you to therapy, what you hope to get out of the experience, and what you’d like to work toward. I’ll do an informal assessment to better understand what’s going on and establish a diagnosis when appropriate, but it will feel much more like a conversation than an evaluation. And no, we are not going to spend our first session going through every terrible thing that has ever happened to you. We’ll start with a snapshot of what your life looks like now—who and what matters to you, what’s been difficult, what’s working, and what you’d like to be different. We’ll also go over the practical side of therapy, including informed consent, confidentiality and its limits, practice policies, cancellation and no-show policies, fees, and billing. We’ll talk about what happens if a mental health emergency comes up and make a plan for how we can handle that together. Most importantly, you don’t need to prepare a perfect story or know exactly what to say. Just come as you are. We’ll figure out the rest together.
Strengths
I’m not a blank-slate therapist, and I’m definitely not a “sit quietly in the corner and nod” therapist. I know how to hold space and listen when that’s what you need, but you also won’t get blind agreement, vague questions, or me answering every question with another question. I’m direct, but I’m also fun, supportive, and gentle when the moment calls for it. I’ll lovingly challenge you when I think it’s needed. We’ll probably laugh. I might swear sometimes. There is no such thing as oversharing in my office. My clients regularly bring me their poetry, art, favorite songs, current obsessions, and screenshots, and “Can I just read you the conversation?” is a perfectly acceptable question. I want you to feel like you can be a whole person in my office—not just a diagnosis or a collection of symptoms. Bring the messy parts, the funny parts, the things you’re embarrassed to say, and the things you can’t stop thinking about. You don’t have to edit yourself to make yourself easier to work with. You can bring all of you.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who is willing to be curious about themselves and open to trying something a little different. You don’t need to know exactly what you need from therapy, and you definitely don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to be willing to show up, be honest, and consider that there might be another way of looking at things. I work with people across a pretty wide range of life stages. I’ve worked with teenagers navigating high school, identity, family, and relationships, as well as adults figuring out careers, relationships, parenthood, major life changes, and what it means to get older. There isn’t one particular age or stage of life that makes someone a “good fit” for me. I especially enjoy working with people who feel stuck in patterns they understand intellectually but can’t seem to change, people who are curious about why they think and react the way they do, and people who want more than simply talking about their problems every week. I also have experience working with neurodivergent clients and understand that therapy shouldn’t require you to force yourself into a neurotypical box. If you’re willing to explore, experiment, laugh occasionally, and maybe have your perspective lovingly challenged once in a while, we’ll probably work well together. You don’t have to be ready to change everything. You just have to be willing to start somewhere.
Treatment methods
Somatic
There are a lot of different ways to do therapy, and not every approach works for every person. I’m an eclectic therapist, which means I draw from several evidence-based approaches and choose the tools that best fit you, your goals, and what you’re experiencing. I have formal training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Somatic Experiencing, and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). I’m also Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed. What does that actually mean for you? It might mean learning practical skills to manage overwhelming emotions, noticing and changing thought patterns that aren’t serving you, working with your body’s responses to stress and trauma, or gradually facing things that anxiety has taught you to avoid. Sometimes we’ll spend time understanding different parts of yourself and why they developed the way they did. Some clients want to know exactly what approach we’re using and why, while others couldn’t care less about the name of the technique—as long as therapy is helping. Either is completely fine with me. I’ll explain what we’re doing when it’s helpful, and I’m always happy to answer questions. My goal isn’t to squeeze you into a particular therapy model. I have a variety of tools in my toolbox, and we’ll figure out together which ones make the most sense for you.
Location
Virtual sessions