Jamie (she/they)
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
– Rumi
My therapeutic approach is expressive and represents my philosophy that we are all connected to and shaped by one another. We each have our perceptions of reality based on our unique experiences and observations. I am a person-centered therapist and my role in our therapeutic relationship is to provide you with authentic and genuine reflections in a format that works best for you as an individual.
I use play therapy when I work with children. “Play Therapy is based upon the fact that play is the child’s natural medium of self expression … It is an opportunity which is given to the child to ‘play out’ his feelings and problems just as in certain types of adult therapy an individual ‘talks out’ his difficulties.” Virginia Axline
I offer ecotherapy (also known as nature therapy) for individual and group sessions. Nature helps us create neural pathways that are linked to a higher quality of life and greater well-being. There are evidence-based reasons, not coincidence, that meditation exercises begin with a visualization of yourself in an outdoor space. Exposure to nature, even having plants and natural light indoors, is healthy for our minds and has been linked to a host of benefits including: improved attention, lower stress, better mood, higher self-esteem, increased empathy, and a reduced risk of psychiatric disorders
In addition to traditional talk therapy (including ecotherapy), I use abstract therapies like art and sandplay to help when words are hard. These techniques help access pre-verbal and long forgotten layers of consciousness. Depending on our goals, I use neurocognitive therapy to offer you an understanding of how brain development nuances show up in your life. Sometimes this includes psychoeducation to help you learn tools that can strengthen your mental capacity to handle internal and external stressors (that you have likely already been facing daily).
My education and experience:
I earned my bachelors degree in history and anthropology from University of Nevada, Las Vegas and spent a semester at St. Andrews University in Scotland studying art history.
I earned a masters degree in clinical mental health counseling from George Fox University with a focus on interpersonal neurobiology, psychopathology, trauma-informed care, child/parent relationship therapy, and sandtray therapy.
I have attended international summits/conferences focused on: grief, child and adolescent mental health, suicide, adhd, trauma, and have a certification in TF-CBT. Additional professional training/workshops have included: gender-affirming play therapy, natural reparative strategies to build resilience, integrating nature in sandtray, attachment-centered family therapy, parenting amidst the pandemic, impact of COVID-19 and social isolation, trust-based relational intervention, expressive arts for adults, clinical strategies for collective grief, and narrative therapy techniques for navigating grief.
Supervisor:
As a Professional Counselor Associate, I work under the supervision of Sedona Karlin,
LMFT #T1391
If you think I might not be the best person to meet your counseling needs, I encourage you to learn more about my colleagues at Wise Counsel & Comfort:
