Are you navigating life transitions, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, grief and loss, or other situations that are interfering with your confidence and comfort in your everyday? Are you overwhelmed and would you like to gain new perspectives, grow your present and emerging strengths and explore improved life balance? I am strength-focused and offer a collaborative partnership opportunity to focus on you and your goals. I strive to provide new perspectives and empower you to explore your current and potential skills and strengths as well as offer you opportunities to discuss and review their use and benefit to you as you activate them in your day to day. I enjoy providing tools, skills and resources that you can use and incorporate into your existing skill set to help you explore your own empowerment and personal growth. I am an active empathetic listener and I consider that a priority in building a therapeutic partnership. You know you best! I will not assume and will ask questions to help the process move forward in a manner that promotes your individual growth toward your goals. I like to use real-life examples in discussion and I often employ humor in this and will get to know specifics that will personalize these examples. I am well-trained and experienced in many evidence-based treatments and together we can explore and plan how to proceed and progress in these for you. Reaching out to engage in therapy can be scary. Please know I understand this and will provide a reassuring, supportive setting to focus on you and on what you are looking to get out of the therapy experience. It is a partnership focused on you, for you and in support of your growth and life balance progress. We can discuss and plan how to best work together toward your goals.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

In our first session, we will review your strengths. Often when life seems off balance we can miss seeing strengths and how they may be able to assist in navigating challenges. It is also empowering to identify strengths as they are often more abundant when we actively look or them. We will also delve into what brings you to seek a collaborative therapeutic partnership. In discussion, you will identify some of your current challenges and stressors and how they are impacting your day to day. We will also explore your de-stressing, and relaxation strategies and I will suggest some additional ones to try and potentially use regularly. I will provide an overview of evidence-based techniques that are most applicable to what you identify as the focus of your goals. We will discuss and collaborate on a plan for your progress. We will then discuss more of what is going on in your day-to-day that is challenging. I will encourage self-awareness of identifying your thoughts and feelings and give you opportunities for feelings processing while offering validation, active listening and support. At the session close, we will recap the session content, and collaboratively make a plan for you to use new skills or identified strengths with plans to discuss progress in this in the next session. Future sessions will have similar content and will provide ongoing support for your use of regular self-care, relaxation, engaging in activities and interests you enjoy and the use of skills such as self-compassion and self-encouragement. I will offer compassionate support and validation of your efforts and progress and encourage you in the same in your inner self-talk.

What treatment methods and tools do you utilize?

My extensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) provides opportunities to explore thought patterns and connections between thoughts and feelings. CBT encourages perspective-taking and the use of tools to grow and develop new and more balanced thinking patterns. CBT is well used to assist in navigating many challenges including those of anxiety, depression and grief and loss and is an empowering treatment with ongoing encouragement of skills used in sessions and in day-to-day experiences. Skills to support emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness through teaching Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills to supplement CBT tools are also provided when applicable. To assist with social anxiety, fears, some general anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tendencies, my training in Exposure Therapy and Exposure Response Prevention would be applicable. My training as a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) can help assist in addressing trauma and would utilize CBT and/ or Exposure Therapy. Additionally, I am strength-based and focused and will help you explore your existing and emerging strengths to support your self-empowerment. Skills including the use of mindfulness, gratitude, relaxation and self-care are encouraged and supported as well.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

My biggest strengths are empathetic listening, exploring and celebrating strengths, providing perspectives and engaging in an eclectic use of humor in exampling skills and use of strengths and tools. Empowering others is my paramount focus. Anxiety is my niche specialty. If anxiety is interfering with your daily life and is a source of difficulty for you, I am ready to offer strength and evidence-based techniques as well as validation and support as you traverse the journey to improved life balance.

About Mary V Schaefer LCSW, CCTP