Therapists in Yelm, WA

Do you sometimes feel like you are not enough? Are you carrying a heavy burden? Do you feel like you're not living a life that is in line with your true self? I can help! I truly believe in the healing power of shining light on the parts of ourselves that we normally keep hidden. As a therapist I strive to develop a nurturing and honest alliance where you can freely explore your thoughts, emotions, and experiences, free from judgement.

Couples, Older Adults, Adults. Please call to schedule a free phone consultation. Are you feeling sad, anxious, overwhelmed, or have you simply found yourself wanting more from your life? People seek therapy for a variety of reasons, and this seeking is often the first brave step toward living into a sense of greater possibility and deeper relationships! I view therapy first and foremost as a relationship that arises from a conversation. That conversation can be transformative and healing, can take many forms, and is an act of co-creation between you and me.

**NEW CLIENTS - Please email me** No one deserves to live in pain. For therapy to work, you need three things: curiosity about yourself and your interactions with others, an authentic connection with your therapist, and concrete, practical tools and skills to promote real and lasting change. My job is to facilitate an understanding of what is causing you pain and getting in your way of creating your best life. As your therapist, I don’t “just listen.” I use an integrative approach, combining several modalities to create the most effective treatment for each client. I practice remote therapy with individual adults.

Sara Elkington MA, LMHC is a licensed mental health therapist currently building a practice in Tacoma, Washington. She has specialized in working with individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, dissociative symptoms, post-trauma reactions, intimate partner abuse recovery, ADHD-related concerns, and those living with a life-changing medical condition or chronic illness. She firmly believes in the power of therapy to promote self-growth and resilience. Sara is committed to providing a safe, supportive, and judgment-free space for her clients to explore their experiences and foster healing.

*Currently accepting new patients* Hi, there! I'm Ian. If you are feeling down, anxious, or stuck or are struggling in your relationships, I would like to help. I believe that meaningful personal connection—feeling understood, accepted, & loved—is at the heart of well-being, so my desire is to provide a genuine, warm, & safe presence in which my clients feel comfortable sharing their stories & exploring how their past has shaped them & their experience of the present. Though I use a psychodynamic approach, I tailor my approach to meet my clients' needs, integrating techniques from various approaches like CBT, gestalt, & mindfulness.

I see a wide range of clients, although I specialize in childhood trauma and CPTSD, relationships, anxiety, ADHD, and LGBTQ issues. I work with both couples and individuals, as well as children and adolescents. Therapy focus may include relationship conflict, anxiety control, satisfaction in both your personal life and work, focus and motivation, and building a sense of "feeling whole" or "complete." I've helped countless clients move from a place of feeling stuck and dissatisfied, to one of happiness and flourishing. I also offer specialized care to transgender and questioning clients, including transition-related counseling.

By addressing troubling thoughts and feelings, self-sabotaging behaviors, and traumas, life can be made more manageable, productive, and fulfilling. Feelings such as grief, shame, anxiety, sadness, and anger often signal that something needs to change. Listening to and working with these feelings—some that consume us and others that gently nudge us—can move us forward. Through this, we sometimes discover that our everyday dilemmas are part of larger patterns waiting to be resolved as a whole.

Over the years I have had the privilege to help individuals and families dealing with a range of problems, including trauma, grief and loss, addiction, mood disorders, anxiety, self-esteem and identity issues, and relationship difficulties, to name I few. I also provide psychological assessments for children and adolescents. I particularly specialize in assessing for Autism, learning and intellectual disabilities, and general diagnostic clarification.

I work with clients seeking growth, integration and change in how they experience their lives, both past and present. When a painful event or memories influence how we interpret our lives, we can often find ourselves stuck in patterns of avoiding, numbing, overworking, obsessing, etc. Despite our best efforts to push through, we start getting signals that something is off and that a deeper issue could be the cause. These signals can present as any range of symptoms (ie anxiety, depression, irritability) or relational difficulties, that sometimes gently, and often times urgently, tell us that we need care.

Compassionate Mindfulness, Curiosity, Exploration. I provide Somatic Pyschotherapy and Couples Counseling to those looking to cultivate a deeper relationship with themselves and with others. We will study and learn from moment by moment experiences about how you relate to your world and the implicit meanings it has for you. We can incorporate art, imagination, dreamwork, and playful experimentation in our work to help access some of your growing edges. This is both depth work as well as practical day to day skill building in learning to know and express a more authentic You.

Accepting clients. To survive in a traumatized, ego-centric culture filled with counterfeit images, we pay a steep price - trauma & pain in our disconnected bodies, loneliness & broken-heartedness in our relationships, an unmet longing for passionate, meaningful engagement with the world. Crisis, illness, pain, suffering & despair become the catalyst for change, awakening our yearning for a more courageous, authentic, embodied life. Speaking to us through symptoms, grief, images, longings, dreams- the soul calls- beckoning us into the unknown, asking us to surrender what no longer serves us. I help people navigate this wilderness.

My clients come to therapy struggling to understand themselves and their partner, leaving them feeling hallow, lost, and alone. They desperately want to feel secure in themselves and connected to their partner, but are confused and wary about how to begin changing. As a therapist, I meet this dilemma with warmth and compassion, as well as knowledge and confidence; this combination is the base of successful therapy. My similar life experiences make me genuine and relatable, and my training background from the top marriage and therapy program and ongoing advanced training support and guide our work.

Two Chairs was founded in 2017 with a mission to build a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental healthcare. We're creating a better experience for both patients and clinicians by starting with an in-depth, research-backed matching process to ensure the ideal patient-therapist fit, offering hybrid care that gives patients and clinicians flexibility between in-person and virtual sessions, and measuring outcomes to ensure patients get better faster.