What do you view as a key component of the therapeutic relationship?

Trust and openness. Building the trust between client and provider is a key part to seeing success in therapy. With that trust comes the ability to be open with one another and to say things that may be challenging to hear. With trust and openness we can create a safe theraputic space where real growth can happen.

How do you determine therapy goals with clients? What does that process look like?

My process is very client centered. I want the client to come up with their personal goals for therapy. This process is done by asking questions about your life and where you want to be in your personal, professional, social, and spiritual life. Then we come up with achievable and measureable ways to obtain those goals.

In what ways does your personality influence your approach to therapy?

I am very outgoing in my personal life and love to talk to people and learn about their life experiences. In therapy I like to let the client lead the discussions about their life and experiences while I am an active listener who provides feedback and asks questions.

Parents

Young Adults (18-24)

Adults (25-65)

Children (5-12)

Adolescents (13-17)

MSW, Individual and Family Therapy, Boise State University

Workplace issues are a common source of stress and can include interpersonal conflict, communication problems, gossip, harassment, discrimination, low motivation and job satisfaction, performance issues, and poor job fit.

Work Stress

Caring for a friend or family member (paid or unpaid) includes emotional support, housework, help with finances, medication management, and shopping. Can be stressful, making caregivers more vulnerable to things like anxiety, isolation, and fatigue.

Caregiver stress & support

Issues arising from being in a new environment or away from home for the first time. College-aged kids have the highest rates of mental illness, suffering things like stress, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and substance abuse.

College & graduate student issues

Often faced during separation or divorce, arrangements for child custody and support must be negotiated. At times prolonged or high-conflict, this can lead to mental health challenges like anxiety or depression among family members.

Custody issues

Familial relationships can be the source of stress and emotional pain, even in the healthiest of situations. Painful interactions can range from irritation to resentment and lead to feelings of guilt, disappointment, and anger.

Family issues

Infertility is often emotionally painful and in some cases leads to intense grief. Affects both men and women and can cause serious strain in relationships, leading to anxiety or depression.

Fertility Issues

Process designed to equip people with tools, motivation, and inspiration necessary to make positive change and maximize personal and professional potential. Life coaches are generally helpful during life transitions or for goal setting and completion.

Life coaching

Positive and negative change can be difficult, including things like moving, breaking up, adjusting to parenthood, or changing careers. It’s normal to feel stressed, however, life transitions can inhibit people from living healthy lifestyles.

Life transitions

Many medical professionals have extremely difficult jobs. When the result of one’s work is a matter of life or death, stress is typical. Medical professionals’ mental health is oftentimes impacted by experiencing vicarious trauma, working long hours, feeling underpaid or unappreciated, and believing that the well-being of others is more important than their own. This may lead toward distress, compromised performance, resentment, poor mental and/or physical health, and burnout.

Medical professionals' mental health

Parenting issues involve those associated with the child-rearing process. These may include safety, discipline, nutrition, finances, childcare, school, household rules, chores, daily routines, social activities, and relationships with extended family members. Because child-rearing practices vary by culture, cultural norms must be considered.

Parenting issues

PTSD is a condition that is precipitated by a perceived terrifying event. This event need not occur directly to the person but may happen vicariously—having seen something terrible happen to another person. The condition may last months or years while symptoms include ruminating thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, intense anxiety when triggered, and potential substance abuse in attempt to cope.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Postpartum depression is a form of depression that occurs after childbirth. It may stem from hormonal changes that naturally occur in the body, emotional instability, and/or cognitive factors. Anxiety, crying, emotional outbursts, and mood swings are common symptoms. The condition may last months or longer and increases the likelihood of developing major depressive disorder later in life.

Postpartum depression

Pregnancy, perinatal, and postpartum issues entail any real or perceived problems or difficulties stemming from the childbirth experience. Pregnancy, perinatal, and postpartum experiences are stressful in many positive and negative ways while the physical body experiences immense stress. Situations vary but may be remedied through therapy and support.

Pregnancy, perinatal, & postpartum issues

Premarital counseling is a specialized form of therapy that helps prepare couples for marriage. Although it is helpful for struggling couples, it may be useful for anyone looking to build a stronger foundation moving into marriage. Couples may explore considerations around healthy communication, merging families, where to live, children, occupation, finances, maintaining a sense of self, supporting one another, and the wedding itself.

Premarital counseling

Step-family or blended family issues issues may include overcoming loss from a previous family situation, establishing a familial bond, setting boundaries, enforcing new rules, adjusting to relocation, learning to communicate in healthy fashion, finances, and household roles.

Step-family/Blended Family Issues

Distress stems from a subjective perception of something being unwanted, undesirable, or detrimental to your wellbeing. Excessive stress significantly impairs mental and physical health and is associated with many diseases and conditions.

Stress

Common issues may include self-doubt, feeling a lack of support, financial concerns, medical concerns, housing concerns, significant lifestyle change, reduced sleep, increased stress, anxiety, and depression.

Transition to new parenthood

Trauma is the result of experiencing a perceived, extremely distressful event. Although the stress threshold for each person differs, meaning that each person considers and experiences trauma differently, it is an event that tops one’s threshold. It exceeds one’s ability to cope or emotionally process. Symptoms may include shock, anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, feeling disconnected, mood swings, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts.

Trauma

Issues within a marriage. Can include issues related to trust, intimacy, communication, infidelity, parenting, or conflict. Can also include discussion related to separation or divorce.

Marriage issues

Couples

English

LCSW

Psychotherapy focused on the interaction between thought and behavior. Examines negative thought patterns with the goal of changing responses to negative stimuli. Often used to treat depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Mindfulness Practices

Form of positive psychotherapy focusing on internal strengths rather than shortcomings. The goal is to help someone build upon their best qualities and adjust to a more resilient mindset through the exploration of pre-existing strength.

Strength Based Therapy

Form of psychological counseling based on rebuilding trust and expressing dysfunctional emotion. Explores the connection between a person’s early attachment with primary caregivers and their ability to develop healthy relationships as an adult.

Attachment-Based Therapy

Form of goal-oriented positive counseling focused on methods of improving personal and professional quality of life. Provides specific tools and motivation used to harness personal strength, increase self-esteem, overcome challenges, and undergo transformation.

Coaching

Therapy used to treat enduring mental health issues associated with a history of abuse or neglect. Cultivates skills related to compassion for self and others to regulate mood and promote feelings of safety and well-being.

Compassion-Focused Therapy

Emphasizes therapist’s understanding of the client’s background relating to racial, cultural, religious, gender, and sexual identities. Offers an empathetic space to manage mental disorders with sensitivity to the politics of power and oppression.

Culturally Sensitive Therapy

Form of psychotherapy employed to help individual family members resolve problems within the context of the entire family. Used to help them understand patterns of interaction and develop new ways of engaging with each other.

Family Systems Therapy

Integrative approach to psychotherapy focused on gender-based stressors women face as a result of bias, stereotyping, oppression, and discrimination. Promotes understanding of social factors contributing to issues, helping the person become more self-aware.

Feminist Therapy

Addresses behavior and emotions of family members/partners and how they affect one another. Therapy is given to individuals and groups. Used to treat conflict and uncover the impact of mental disorders on the group.

Marriage and Family Therapy

Modified form of cognitive therapy that reveals thought patterns that prevail during depressive episodes and teaches new ones to ease emotional pain and maintain wellness. Implements practices like meditation and breathing exercises.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Form of counseling that helps people resolve ambivalence and insecurity into the motivation to meet specific goals like sobriety. Utilizes collaborative conversation, recognizing how difficult change can be while fostering an atmosphere of acceptance.

Motivational Interviewing

Intervention for children between 0-5 who have experienced trauma resulting in changed behavior or emotions. Combines play and behavioral therapy, relying on the strength of the parent-child relationship. Parents also learn new communication techniques.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

Non-authoritative approach allowing the person or client to take the lead in the process of self-discovery and healing. Therapist facilitates the conversation with complete acceptance and a lack of interference.

Person-Centered Therapy

Focuses on traits, thoughts, behaviors, and experiences that can improve the quality of someone's daily life. Goal is to center on positive experiences like optimism, creativity, and resilience, giving balance to the therapeutic process.

Positive Psychology

Guided conversational approach to helping people solve problems and reduce suffering by concentrating on the present and desired future. Coaching and questioning is intended to lead people to next steps using skills they innately possess.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Therapists use the therapeutic benefits of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties, and assists with growth and development. Can be used to address behavioral problems, as well as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and academic and social development. Can include creative visualization storytelling, role-playing, puppets, stuffed animals, arts and crafts, sand play, etc. Play Therapy is typically used to help children between ages of 3-12.

Play Therapy

Family Session

Couples Session

Individual Session

Adolescent mental health focuses on adolescent-specific experiences including physical and cognitive development, social and environmental factors, sex, sexual identification and orientation, emotional processing, and substance use. Given the influence that parents/guardians have on adolescents, home life is a particularly important consideration.

Adolescent mental health

Adoption and foster care considerations include education on the process, integrating the new family, establishing household rules and boundaries, processing past trauma on behalf of the child, emotional health, and other adjustment procedures.

Adoption & foster care

Coping skills are tools and techniques one can learn, practice, and use to handle difficult emotions, decrease stress, and establish or maintain a sense of internal order.

Emily AnselLCSW

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What do you view as a key component of the therapeutic relationship?

How do you determine therapy goals with clients? What does that process look like?

In what ways does your personality influence your approach to therapy?

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