Marriage & Family Therapy
Sarah Nicholson, Licensed MFT
I have been treating people with depression, anxiety, addictions and eating disorders for 15 years. I use my personal experience, clinical training and intuition to guide my work. Often there are unresolved issues such as grief and loss or trauma that lead us to deny or shut down parts of ourselves. My approach allows all parts of you a safe place to be present and integrate. This process of becoming whole is gradual, and we set the pace of our work together.
Sarah's Tools
Many of us didn't have the emotional tools we needed in childhood, or the tools we had were broken and inadequate for life's trials. I offer functional tools quickly to provide a sense of relief and control in managing your emotions. It's easy to distract ourselves with; food, exercise, drugs, alcohol, spending, television, computer gaming, social media browsing, or sex to avoid facing our feelings, but recovery is about discovering new ways of coping. See my tools page for free "Spoonfuls of Therapy" videos that remind us how to take care of ourselves, mind, body and spirit.
What to Expect
My office is a private and sacred sanctuary where we can meet individually or in small groups to go through the process of recovery and growth. In our weekly sessions we will develop a rapport and create a plan addressing your treatment needs. This may include practical components like expanding your social life and daily self-care practices, education through reading, listening to materials online or journaling between sessions. Your plan will be flexible and focus on your personal life goals.
What Ails You?
Surviving Grief & Loss
Facing a loss in your life can be one of the most painful transitions you ever experience. Loss of a loved one by death, divorce, break-up, miscarriage, abortion, and even retirement or empty nest syndrome, are all common parts of life that can be tough to deal with. Especially when most people are uncomfortable with your grief and unsure how to respond. They may make insensitive comments despite their good intentions. That's why it's valuable for your grief process to have a safe place to face your loss. Together we can explore the mixed emotions you may feel, learn to accept them and develop hope for your new life.
Reducing Anxiety
Anxiety includes everything from general to incessant worry and inability to control it, panic, hyper-vigilance (being on high alert and feeling unsafe), or being frozen and paralyzed with fear. All of these symptoms can be managed quite easily once you know how to do it. Anxiety treatment involves learning how to reduce your physical symptoms by grounding your body with relaxation tools. The other component is learning to control your thoughts instead of them controlling you. This means becoming aware of them, catching any negative, self-destructive patterns, slowing them down, stopping and countering them to develop a more affirming attitude.
Relieving Depression
Depression can be debilitating and can get worse when left untreated. It can manifest in low mood, crying a lot or not at all, lack of motivation, isolation, feeling detached from yourself and others, feeling helpless, guilty, self-hating or despair. Breaking the isolation is the first step to relief. In our sessions we can explore what's missing in your life and how to invite renewed interest and create vitality. Treatment might include replacing destructive behaviors, increasing daily self-care habits, expanding your social support network, learning assertiveness skills that empower you to ask for what you want and need. The road to recovery becomes much easier when you have a guide.