Therapists for college students near Portland, OR
My ideal client is someone who is ready to engage in reclaiming their personal power. Therapy is just as much about unlearning, as it is learning. I enjoy working with folks who have a history of "people pleasing" and who have experienced emotional abuse. In particular I enjoy working with those who have experienced narcissistic abuse, and are looking to come back into contact with feeling grounded in their own reality again. I have a broad range of experience working with folks from many different walks of life. What I can help you with is finding a way to feel at peace, and guide you towards feeling stronger and more centered. We will do this by processing your lived experiences, how this has impacted you and by implementing new ways of being and thinking. I invite you to reach out to me if any of this resonates with you. Starting therapy can be a daunting endeavor to embark on. The world has been an exceptionally hard place these past few years. You deserve some support, some peace, and the gift of self care. I am here and ready to support you.
I have lived in Oregon since 2006. As an active person and outdoor enthusiast, I enjoy hiking, yoga, kickboxing, cycling, and paddle sports. I spend my time relaxing with my husband, friends, family, and 7-year-old adorable black Labrador mix. I enjoy traveling and have been able to explore Africa, Central America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Don’t worry…Australia and Antarctica are on the list! I have been practicing therapy since 2009 and working in mental health services since 2001. I received my Master’s in Applied Psychology in Mental Health Counseling from Southern Oregon University in 2009 and my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California in Santa Cruz in 2003. I have worked in a variety of therapeutic environments including a sub-acute hospital for adults with severe and persistent mental illness, a residential treatment program for adolescents, treatment foster care for children and youth, community-based services for families in crisis, foster care settings for children, youth, and young adults, outpatient mental health for adults, and in clinical research for youth and young adults struggling with suicidal thoughts and self-harming behaviors. I am a licensed professional counselor in the state of Oregon. My license is registered under my maiden name: Kristen Semelsberger. License number is C5039.
Are you finding yourself struggling to handle life's challenges more and more lately? You are not alone. We are living in unprecedented times that have intensified previously manageable challenges, or new ones into our lives. I am here to help you navigate your journey to mental health wellness. Whether it be from coping with anxiety or depression, to strengthening coping skills in general, this journey is about you. As such I am committed to providing you a safe space that is free of all judgement. I am dedicated to providing an environment that acknowledges, validates, and celebrates my client’s many intersecting identities. I work primarily from a person centered approach that integrates cognitive behavioral techniques in a way that empowers clients to make the tangible changes needed to reach their therapeutic goals Your voice is valid, your goals are valid, and your journey to mental health wellness is valid. Reach out to me by either email at amalia@newspringscounseling.org or phone at 971-224-7567 to connect so we can start your journey together.
Each person we meet in life experiences things differently and has struggles that are unique to them. Because of this, we believe that effective therapy is never one-size fits all. We strive to understand the unique needs of every person as we walk with them on their journey. Our training and experience enables us to offer specialized care for a variety of mental health disorders. Our goal is to bring comfort to each client by utilizing an eclectic therapeutic approach with an empathic, person-centered focus being at the core of everything we do. Our facility serves clients in Utah and Oregon via telehealth services.
Stuck in anxiety? Feeling trapped in trauma? I love working with clients seeking to heal their anxiety, trauma, and PTSD through a somatic approach. This trauma often masquerades as anxiety, which makes it confusing. We'll find just the right starting place, and I'll teach you practical tools. Whether you're feeling trapped in trauma, anxiety, or just wanting a deeper understanding of your human experience - we'll figure out together how to create more peace in your life and less exhausting hypervigilance and worry!
Do you feel ready to explore and heal what’s getting in the way of you living your most joyful, creative, connected life? Are depression and anxiety keeping you either feeling weighed down, dull, and purposeless, or else on high alert and living from a place of fear and busyness round the clock? Are habitual thought-loops and tensions in the body keeping you in a perpetual state of mistrust, perfectionism/people-pleasing, and/or judgement towards yourself and others? Often, depression and anxiety are the result of an impulse getting “stuck” in the system and not being able complete its cycle. In my practice, I use a blend of Somatic Experiencing, Voice Dialogue Parts Work, and mindfulness-based present moment inquiry to create a compassionate and attuned space of inner exploration and healing. My goal is to help you move through "unfinished business" stored in the body and the mind, so that you can live in greater wellbeing and freedom. I am here to help you gently release the shame, fear and mistrust that may be holding you back from delighting in your life and in your connections to humans and to the more-than-human world.
Relationships are vital to our health and well-being, yet few of us have been trained how to foster and maintain healthy ones. I support the development of healthy relationship skills by focusing on emotional expression, relational skill development, and personal empowerment. Rekindling the trust, emotional connection, and playful spark necessary for healthy relationship is a process of establishing mutual goals, building new skills of emotional intelligence and embodied communication while healing old wounds. We are always, already in relationship; whether it is a relationship to another person, place, or oneself, we are in some way connected and affected by our surroundings. As such, it is in relationship that our deepest hurts can take place, and it is also in relationship that our most profound and liberating healing can occur. As a therapist, I work side-by-side with you, and it is in our own relationship together that we explore and uncover your greatest strengths, as well as all the ways you may unconsciously hold yourself back. My specialties include working with adults recovering from trauma experienced as a child or an adult. I enjoy working with individuals who are stuck in relationship patterns and are looking to break these patterns. I have expertise working with college students of all ages and people struggling with life transitions. My office is safe and affirming no matter your race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or physical ability.
I believe in therapy as a mutual journey of healing and discovery, where both client and therapist grow together. I specialize in working with refugees, immigrants, their first-generation children, and individuals with LGBTQIA2S+ identities. My clients have genuine desire to explore their authentic selves despite having navigated complex trauma, cultural displacement, or identity-based discrimination, they are ready to engage in deep, transformative work towards liberation.
I believe the role of a therapist is to be more than a reflective and empathetic companion in the client’s journey and must also incorporate directive approaches in order to alternate between being a companion and being a leader on that journey. Inherent in this belief is that clients are coming to therapy because they want something different than what they currently have. This can be as simple as a new perspective on a past or current struggle or as complex as a new skill set for managing and overcoming emotional, behavioral, cognitive, relational, or somatic patterns that have arisen in response to emotional distress. My theoretical orientation is rooted in Systems Theory and I utilize interventions from Family Systems Therapy, Internal Family Systems, CBT, DBT, Motivational Interviewing, ARC, as well as Somatic and Mindfulness based psychotherapies. I have over 15 years of clinical experience working with adolescents, college students, adults, couples, and families. My experience has shown that change is typically hard work and often requires compassionate and collaborative support in order to build new skills. I see clients in both Oregon and Massachusetts and I offer a 30 minute free video or phone consultation to see if I am the right fit for you.
The heart of what I do is support couples and relationships in our community. When I work with individuals, I'm interested in helping you sink into being fully you while being in relationship with others. That might mean learning more about who you are, discovering your needs in relationship, getting support with boundaries and saying "no," processing your childhood and past, or growing your ability to being more vulnerable with others. I want to support you in being your full, authentic self. I am affirming of ethical non-monogamy (ENM), polyamory and open relationships. I am LGBTQIA+ affirming, actively learning anti-racist, body positive, sex positive, and kink positive.
I am a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and received my Masters degree in Counseling from Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling in 2013. I am a trained Sensorimotor Psychotherapist (Level 1), EMDR trained, Certified Yoga Practitioner (CYP-500), have training in facilitating Trauma Recovery and Empowerment groups (TREM) and Saber Es Poder (SEP) groups. Additionally, I have completed 30 hours of teacher training in Pranayama studies (yogic breathwork). I incorporate these core areas of education in my therapeutic approach. As a somatically focused mental health therapist, I integrate a body-centered approach in which the wisdom of the body assists the therapeutic process. Within this approach, I encourage clients to listen and honor the signals that the body provides. I value supporting my clients tell their stories as they have experienced them, explore emotions and understand thinking patterns that influence their relationship to themselves and others. I support my clients explore and understand the ways in which culture, language, family, community and the many aspects of identity influence their experience. I value approaching my work with collaboration, humility, focus and curiosity. I can support you and provide guidance as we explore, understand and find ways to make shifts to create the balance and changes you desire.
Congratulations on taking steps to getting support! Therapy is a way to not feel so alone with our pain, change our thoughts and behaviors so they are more adaptive, and allow us to live in a more expansive way. I see you as the expert on you, and my role as an expert in healing, together we collaborate to get you where you want to be in life. Brain science, attachment theory (childhood relationship with our caregivers), and the context of our culture (as it intersects with our identities) are the lenses I use to strengthen your awareness, feel feelings, and heal. Laughter and peace are a necessary part of healing too! I am trained in art therapy, attachment-focused EMDR, Brainspotting, and "parts work," or Internal Family Systems, to work with the limbic area (where trauma is stored) of the brain in order to heal both "big T" and "little t" trauma. Studies have shown that in order to heal trauma and change thoughts/feelings/behavior body and brain based therapies are necessary.
Modern Outlook LLC owned by Demetrio Sanchez, LCSW, founded in 2017, has teamed up with Restore Therapy LLC to provide in-person and virtual mental health and performance coaching to local athletes in the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Driven out of their own experiences of being collegiate athletes and then later acquiring training as mental health professionals, it became obvious that there was a need for mental health support specific to athletes. The partnership aims to meet that need. Modern Outlook has developed the niche of performance-focused mental health services over the course of serving a range of competitive athletes in every sport.
Are you feeling anxious or struggling to cope with your worries? Have you experienced trauma in your life & noticing it affecting your life today? Are you wanting to improve your relationship with food and/or your body? Maybe you are wanting to discover more about yourself and how you navigate the world. I believe it’s important to allow time to process experiences, learn about coping skills and also how to find healing in a way that aligns with you and your values. We'll also explore how different parts of yourself can impact you in different life experiences. My practice is culturally sensitive, gender affirming and welcoming to all body sizes. I work through a holistic approach where I believe in including your whole self in therapy, which includes the mind-body connection, your background, values, beliefs, identity and any other important aspects that make up who you are. Therapy can offer you a safe space to process these experiences, discover more about yourself and how you navigate the world. I do my best to meet people where they are. I understand if it’s someone’s first time in therapy or if someone is feeling nervous or hesitant about it, that it takes time to build trust with someone to eventually share your story.
Therapy offers the opportunity to make lasting positive changes in life and in relationships. By exploring the role the past has played in current difficulties and dissolving old, destructive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, life can be more balanced and joyful. As a licensed therapist, Christopher offers warmth, compassion, support, and insight to this process, with an approach that is direct, non-judgmental, and tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual. Utilizing cognitive-behavioral, emotionally-focused and schema-based therapeutic strategies, Christopher works primarily with individual adults and couples, specializing in depression, anxiety, communication impasses, life transitions, drug and alcohol, loss, abuse, and trauma. Therapeutic change is facilitated by working towards collaboratively building upon inherent strengths and gaining insight into childhood origins of insecure attachment patterns while recognizing how these habitual patterns might be related to current problems. Utilizing the art of non-judgmental awareness – mindfulness – Christopher explores these themes with his clients, by helping them holistically connect with the memories, emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations fundamentally associated with the destructive, repetitive cycles individuals often struggle with. In this way, individuals are empowered to challenge these negative cycles and inevitably bring a greater sense of control, clarity, and balance back into their lives, while awakening inherent wisdom to more adaptively cope with life’s many challenges. Christopher obtained his Masters's degree in Counseling Psychology from Pacific University and currently works as a mental health therapist in private settings and at the hospital psychiatric ICU. Christopher enjoys working with individuals from various cultural backgrounds and lifestyle orientations.
Our life experiences impact who we are and who we become. The positive experiences stay with us, but the negative experiences stay with us as well. Sometimes it helps to look at all these experiences – both positive and negative to help us gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. The relationships we have had throughout our lives are also deeply influential in shaping who we are and our current relationships. Therapy can be helpful in giving each person a greater sense and deeper understanding of who they are and how their relationships and experiences have impacted them. By looking at all these pieces we can place them together to form a whole picture.
I use relationship building as the foundation of my therapy practice. I believe feeling seen, held, and safe are vital components of being able to grow. My hope is to create an atmosphere where the people I meet with feel met and known which will allow us to walk together through vulnerability. With all my clients I take a Neurobiological approach, which is a fancy way to say I think a lot about nervous systems and how to regulate them. Our nervous systems need co-regulation before they can learn to self-regulate. Together we will explore what feels soothing to your particular system and build strategies from there. I pull Internal Family Systems (IFS) or parts work and Narrative Therapy techniques. My style is client centered, collaborative, affirming, and trauma informed.
If you are new to therapy or returning to it, it's normal to feel anxious or unsure about where to start. It's a big step and also it's an opportunity to grow, develop new insights and increase capacity to feel grounded. I work from a place of deep empathy, understanding, intuition, and humor. In order for therapy to be transformative and healing, a good therapeutic relationship must be built. Together we will identify barriers to your emotional, relational and functional well being. Let's work together.