Margot Troutt LCSW

The first few sessions of our work will involve us getting to know each other, and your telling me what brought you to therapy and what you would like to get out of it. I will ask you questions, about your life and the meanings you have drawn from it. We will then focus on goals you would like to achieve during our work together, and we will use them as our guide. As we explore your life, your goals, and your hopes, I will listen, share observations, and address patterns that appear. We will then work together to modify or change these patterns in a way that positively impacts your experience as opposed to getting in your way. If you are looking for someone who will simply listen and be a blank slate, I am not the therapist for you. However, if you want to see a therapist who does not check her own humanity at the door, you have just found one. I work through warmth, laughter, and good humor to gently pave the way for difficult work to be explored while encouraging clients to confront uncomfortable truths and giving them the tools to address them effectively.

My treatment methods include but are not limitied to psychodynamic therapy, which explores how our past influences our present. I also utilize dialectical behavioral therapy to assist clients in appreciating that two contradictory feelings can be true at the same time. For example, that we can deeply love someone who has also harmed us in ways that impact who we have become. And finally, I use cognitive behavioral therapy, (CBT) to address intrusive thoughts and the negative self talk that all of us engage in at times. CBT empowers us to challenge those thoughts in ways that helps us understand them as thoughts, and not truths regarding who we are as people.

• Pennsylvania, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, CW015900