Hi! I am a licensed clinical social worker with 14 years of experience in the field. I support helping professionals with managing and improving their own mental health in order to be the best for their own clients. I have a passion for the importance of informed and personalized self care as a key strategy in navigating life's challenges.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session, we will go into more specifics about who you are, what your struggles are and what your goals are for therapy. From there, we can work together to develop an ongoing plan for how we can address these concerns.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
As a helping professional myself, I have experience personally and professionally with the struggles of wanting to support others but needing to see how to do it in a new way. As a helping professional, your well-being and growth process directly affect how you can show up and support those you serve. My understanding of these dynamics gives me the insight to help clients navigate this process.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I love working with helping professionals who have a passion for serving others but are struggling with how to do this in an aligned and healthy way. Oftentimes, you are struggling with burn out and/or compassion fatigue yet still wanting to serve others. And you can often can recognize and/or verbalize the issues but you need support clarifying, personalizing and implementing it. I am here to help the helpers identify the shifts and changes that will better support their goals.
About Alanna Hay Thomas
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Fully bookedMy treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
This is a foundational aspect of my treatment approach. I use CBT as a strategy to help clients become more in touch with the impact of their thoughts and emotions. While the cognitive aspects are often heavily emphasized, I find it important to bring the behavioral activations to the table so that clients can reap the benefits of improved behaviors while also addressing mindset concerns. I also believe that each session should end with a "challenge" that the client agrees to for integration practice in between sessions to build up their own skill sets.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
I have been certified in Mindfulness for 5 years. Within my practice, I support clients to integrate mindfulness strategies into their daily lives and bring mindfulness practices into session, as well. Each session with clients involves a mindfulness practice to help clients cultivate and learn how to integrate mindfulness into their lives.
Supportive
I provide a safe container for clients to express their emotions because sometimes, we just need to be able to express our truths safely and without judgment in order to be able to move forward to next steps. I allow space and time in sessions for clients to share what may be most pressing on their mind and then it can be integrated into the client's treatment, as needed or appropriate.
Strength-Based
I have used this throughout as a social worker. In the midst of many challenges, clients benefit from recognizing and utilizing their existing strengths as the foundation for progress and growth. I emphasize client strengths- pointing them out when I see them but also encouraging clients to develop the ability to recognize their strengths, as well, and learn to utilize them in support of their goals.
Motivational Interviewing
I have been trained in motivational interviewing and it's integration into the process and flow of my overall work with clients. Ultimately, the client decides what their goals are and the steps of action and I utilize MI to help elicit both clarity and ambivalence from the client to support their process of deciding where to focus and what to change.