Jessie Tirrell LCSW

I have found myself most excited to treat children and adults with trauma and anxiety. I have noticed that whether you have one of these issues or both that some of the most common things you might deal with are self doubt, struggling to ask for help, struggling to believe people want to help you, and long standing feelings of insecurity in your environment. Because of this I have started understanding problems people seek treatment for in a developmental context with heavy reliance on attachment theories. While I love CBT when I work with people with significant anxiety I have found that we have to make sure we are connecting to the real thoughts underneath anxiety and most of the time they are thoughts like "they don't really want to help me" and "I am not worth this trouble" rather than a simple "it might be hard." Many people with anxiety struggle to not feel like a burden and talking about these ideas with others can reinforce these feelings. Having a place in therapy to planfully explore your self worth and value as a person and pair it with positive help seeking behaviors has helped people I treat find healing and hope where coping skills alone just kept them "good enough" and white knuckling through the day . I have found these ideas across the lifespan and when working with children am very careful to explore ideas of self worth and connection without putting ideas in children's heads and my integration of parents within session let kids explore these fears with their best safety net, their parents.

• Texas, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, 51503

I first started my career working in early intervention for pre schoolers and once graduating moved into working with parents reunifying with their children and supporting adoptive and foster families. I spent 2 years working in adoption and foster care training parents and eventually was the treatment director for all therapeutic services over Texas. During this time I learned a lot about how trauma and attachment impact children and the challenges that parents of children from hard places have. I decided to move into more direct therapy and spent 15 years working in inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient treating children. In the last 10 years I have focused heavily on treating young elementary age children and their parents. Because I have worked in prominent hospitals in the DFW area I have a wide range of experience with both common problems and problems that many therapists don't ever see. I also am very skilled at helping people understand mental health conditions, especially when there are more than one and how they might interact. I am a systems therapist and fully believe that helping you learn to navigate your system (school, medical, employment, neighborhood, church etc.) is a critical part of helping you heal. I have been a trainer and a field supervisor for many years due to my knowledge and ability to translate technical information into easy to understand pieces.