Adoption Therapists in 01060

Have traumas or other events thrown your life off course? I see my job as helping people get back to their "regularly scheduled lives". Whether you have PTSD, or you are a bereaved parent or someone grieving a recent loss, I believe that with the right amount of understanding and validation, every person can successfully reclaim their lives and find his/her/their purpose again. As a consultant and Adjunct Professor specializing in grief and loss, I realize that not all losses are due to death. Grieving for a multitude of losses, including Learning Disorders, ADHD, and adoption, is my focus of treatment.

I have been a practicing psychotherapist for 27 years. I tailor the way I work to what an individual client needs. This might involve understanding how one's past affects current mental health, exploring relationship issues, identifying feelings, or becoming more assertive. In all cases I try to provide a safe and supportive atmosphere.

**Practice full as of Nov 2019** I am a licensed psychologist specializing in therapy with children and adolescents. I believe we all develop "ways of being" in the world as a result of our innate temperament and early experiences. Psychotherapy and psychological testing offer the chance to look at these ways of being with a compassionate lens, honoring the value they have held in your life while determining whether they are still useful to you now. Through this process, new ways of being can emerge, leading to greater satisfaction in your life.

I am an experienced family therapist who has worked with children, adolescents, adults, and families in a variety of settings. I see self-pay clients and Blue Cross Blue Shield. I am often the first person to see a young child when emotional and behavioral difficulties emerge in pre-school or Kindergarten. I can help figure out what's going on diagnostically and we can develop a treatment plan together. I have successfully helped children and adults with ADHD, PTSD, Anxiety, and Mood Disorders like Depression and Bipolar Disorder.

If this is your first time looking for a therapist, or continuing your journey into self discovery finding someone to connect with may feel like a difficult task. I believe that the most important step in finding success in therapy is connecting with someone who understands you and can hear your perspective and respectfully challenge your thought process. Whether you are someone who comes to this setting thinking, “I don’t even know where to start,” or are coming with a list of tasks to begin working on, I would enjoy getting to know you.

I specialize in working with neurodivergent individuals, LGBTQ+ folks, adoptees, and people experiencing the pregnancy and postpartum phases of life. My private therapy practice is limited to adults (18+) located in the state of Massachusetts. All sessions are conducted virtually, using a HIPAA-compliant platform.

Our early experiences begin to shape our thoughts, feelings, habits, and beliefs about ourselves in the world. When experiences are positive, successful and shared, we learn how to find satisfaction, connection, and support. When early experiences are overwhelming, the content (feelings, thoughts, sensations) can get stuck and replayed alongside later life events, making us feel worse than we think we should. For example, we might feel off-balance, angry, or fearful; we might think we are powerless, alone, unwanted, incapable, or in danger; and we might feel sensations in our body like tension, weakness, pain, or numbness.

(NOTE: I have little to no availability. ) Do you struggle with the effects of a difficult childhood, have an addiction, had a life-changing accident, or experienced an abusive or controlling relationship? If so, you probably don't enjoy life as much as you'd like. Our work will be both a partnership and an exploration, working at your pace. I'm trained as a psychotherapist and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. I value working collaboratively, at your pace, towards building greater resilience, feeling safer, and resolving areas of difficulty so that you can enjoy yourself, your relationships and your life more.

Thank you for considering my profile. I am licensed both as a Mental Health Counseler and a Marriage and Family Therapist. A guiding belief in my work is an unconditional regard for the individual value of each person. I have a variety of training (Pyschodynamic, cognitive behavioral, relational EFT, EMDR etc.)and use an ecelectic approach. I have been working with children and their families in a varity of settings, for almost 30 years. I have extensive experience working with a variety of diagnosis. I also have a bachelor degree in working with Young Children with Special Needs.

Trauma is often narrowly associated with experiences of overt violence; I work with a much broader understanding. Trauma can emerge from experiences that negatively impact and interfere with daily functioning, and I believe everyone deserves opportunities to heal from visible and invisible wounds. Utilizing an intensive trauma therapy model, I help clients rebuild from life’s most vulnerable moments. I center and honor my clients’ experiential knowledge and, as a mixed-race therapist, recognize the value of creating a safe, non-judgmental space for people who carry intersecting marginalized identities.

I like to work relationally, which means that we, together, work on whatever challenges present themselves for you at this time in your life. It is my belief that each of us holds the answers to our own life challenges within ourselves. Therapy can create a supportive framework that can help clear debris from life's path so that one can see one's path more clearly. Adult life is often connected to our history, and the culture/environments we grew up in. Therapy can be a place to understand the threads between past and present. I often work with folks who are becoming parents. This phase is complex and can stir the silt of our story.

I am a therapist working in downtown Northampton providing strength-based, goal oriented psychotherapy. My office is handicapped accessible and convenient to public transportation. I offer evening and weekend times and work with people of all ages individually, in couples and with family members. I am also a founder of Northampton Center for DBT, which offers DBT skills training classes in downtown Northampton (kristenjoyce.com/dbt-skills-classes/).

I have been doing, teaching, and supervising psychotherapy continuously since 1969, and I still love it. I tailor my style to the needs of each person, drawing on Psychodynamic, Humanistic/Existential, Cognitive Behavioral, and Eye Movement Accelerated Resolution Therapies. I work with adults, seeking individual or couples therapy. And I am experienced with the full range of issues, from simple phobias to major affective and thought disorders. I believe patient-therapist match is extremely important and for that reason offer free initial, in person consultations. My office is located in Northampton, Massachusetts, and offers privacy, convenient parking, and pleasant surroundings.

Tarn was adopted and raised in Southern Vermont on a farm. She has always loved helping others so the decision to become a therapist came easy. She first attended Community College in Vermont before continuing on to earn a BA in Sociology from Smith College in Northampton, MA. Tarn then attended the Smith College School for Social Work where she earned a Masters in Social Work (MSW). She has since worked in a variety of positions throughout her career which have assisted her in becoming an eclectic therapist with a wealth of knowledge in several facets of social work and life.

I approach each client by trying to determine what is unique about you as a result of your life story. I place paramount value in our counseling sessions on your strengths and courage to discover a positive path to growth and well-being. My practice focuses on counseling individuals who want to work on: personal relationships; overcoming depression and/or anxiety; grief and loss issues; life transitions; and/or personal growth. I have a particular interest in perinatal and postpartum mental health with a focus on: pregnancy loss; pregnancy termination; depression and anxiety during pregnancy; and postpartum depression and anxiety.

My approach is warm, playful, and relational. I work with children and teens whose stories are in the making; stories that are stored in their bodies and minds; stories that are played out through behaviors and actions. I help interpret behaviors as we work towards change and healing. I engage with children, adolescents and families when something feels “off”, when something bad, sad, or scary happens. Together we work on regulating feelings, thoughts, and experiences in our body. You learn to become more attuned to each other and connect.

"It is a joy to be hidden, but a disaster not to be found". Donald W. Winnicott

We are all born into life with a story. Sometimes we're the sad kiddo, sometimes the quiet one, the perfect one, the silly one, the list goes on and on. Often these stories stick with us and become our paths but they don't have to define us. Sometimes life just takes its toll. The stress of work, loss, parenthood, health, loneliness, relationships, identity or even making day to day choices can add up and leave us feeling stuck. I've worked with individuals and couples to help amplify what's working and change patterns that are no longer serving them. Let me help get you unstuck. I'm also available for clinical supervision.

I see clients virtually in California and Florida and in person in western Ma. People enter my therapy practice for all sorts of reasons. You may be at an impasse or a crossroads due to the loss of a relationship, a big life decision or general anxiety that you can no longer bear on your own. You may be suffering from the wounds of homophobia, transphobia, racism, white supremacy and patriarchy, on top of other traumas and early childhood wounds. Regardless, I seek to offer a safe space for you to access a deeper understanding of yourself and your underlying needs and motives, as well as a personal sense of freedom and empowerment.