Therapists in North Wales, PA

Openings late April, 2024. Practice limited to people in their 20s and 30s. Risa Mandell is a licensed clinical social work psychotherapist in Pennsylvania. The psychotherapeutic journey loosens unwanted, ossified internal and interpersonal patterns, resulting in a strengthened capacity for psychological and behavioral choice as well as transforming recalcitrant wounds into compassion for yourself and others. Risa listens to you to facilitate the evolution of your relationship to your thoughts, your feelings, your body and to the people and pets in your life.

My work as a clinician is grounded in establishing a safe, supportive, and nurturing co-created environment. We all struggle at times and sometimes having help is necessary to find calm, balance, or growth. Each client brings their own unique strengths and challenges. Together we develop a plan to help you move toward your goals. My counseling is informed by my work with students with special needs, families in transition, my training in yoga and mindfulness, and my work with men and women who experienced domestic violence. I use a trauma informed, person-centered approach in which clients feel safe, heard, and valued.

Are you increasingly anxious, thinking about the past and worried about the future while unable to focus on today? Our sessions can offer you the hope and time you need to gain perspective. I have extensive experience working with young adults, college students & couples in inpatient, and outpatient settings struggling with traumatic events in their lives, stress, adjustment and challenges that require more resilience, relationship issues, depression and anxiety. Sometimes unhelpful addictions were our way of coping and we need support to redirect. I am here for you and ready to help.

Choosing to begin psychotherapy can start with a feeling that there is more for you to discover, a greater balance to achieve, or a challenge to work through. In the safe accepting space of therapy, a healing process can evolve at a pace that is supportive and comfortable for you. I encourage people to approach their inner work with gentleness, perseverance, courage and compassion. I offer psychodynamic, mindful, cognitive and trauma-informed care to individuals, pairs and groups, including independent teens (only). I value and practice a thoughtful, culturally aware, and collaborative approach to our work.

Do you find yourself overthinking your decisions and interactions? Feeling unheard or misunderstood by your partner(s), family, or colleagues? Are you tired of feeling stuck? Having a sense of inner peace and feeling connected within your relationships is possible. It can be challenging to believe that in our society that often asks more of us than we would like to give. I want to help you to find the right tools to build the confidence to identify and communicate your own needs, limits, and desires to be authentic in your life and relationships.

The fact that you’re reading this means that you're ready to feel better. It takes courage to reach out to a therapist and means that you have hope that things can be better. Hope is what fuels the work of therapy and together we can help you to manage anxiety, depression and stress so that you can live your happiest life. Therapy is such a rewarding process and I know firsthand that it works and that YOU are so worth it. Being a therapist is my calling, my passion and my purpose and it would be my honor to travel with you on your journey to your Apogee, to your highest self, your journey to YOU!

Have you ever felt, "Why is this happening to me, I don't know who I am anymore!" Constant worrying, low mood, relational challenges, and life transitions can wear you down. Simultaneously, navigating multiple cultural contexts can challenge your values and world views, often creating dissonance about who you are. Within the mindful space of therapy, I can help you examine the nature of your worries, the frequent blues, your existing thinking style, responses to people and the world around you. Through collaboration, I can offer alternative ways of thinking and responding to challenges, and help develop an effective coping toolkit.

Take a moment and visualize your life as a garden, influenced by various individuals and experiences that have shaped its landscape. You may notice aspects of your garden that no longer align with your desires—a tangle of vines choking your flowers or plants that no longer serve you. Maybe you have yearning to create a garden that truly reflects who you are and are unsure of what you want to grow. Some sections of your garden are thriving and others aren't. Whether there is that type of knowing or its processing an adverse event(s), you have an awareness that your "garden" isn't as full as you want it to be.

Welcome, I am so glad you are here. It takes courage to acknowledge and seek out solutions to overcome the current obstacles in your path. These are difficult times and there is absolutely no reason for you to bear this pain on your own.

I believe that we all have an instinct toward growth and healing, and my experience with clients continues to affirm that with good support, everyone has the innate capacity to change. I trust and respect clients by bringing my genuine curiosity, deep sense of acceptance, and keen intuition to what they share with me. Troubling events and traumas happen to all of us, but as we explore old beliefs and process through difficult emotions, it is possible to alter those ingrained habits that prevent growth, and move into a more free experience of yourself. I have an open, relaxed, interactive style based on a holistic perspective.

It’s natural to experience unhelpful patterns or symptoms when we've experienced trauma and adverse childhood experiences. We feel off balance, chronically stressed, anxious, or depressed. I prefer to view these symptoms as inner parts who need our attention and care. When these inner parts are healed, they feel less compelled to ruminate, obsess, or depress. That means there is more space for the qualities you want to have in your life, such as creativity, joy, confidence, clarity, peace, and presence.

Have you ever found yourself wondering: why does this keep happening? Perhaps your relationships all tend to end the same or your friendships never seem as close as you thought they were. Or no matter what you do you can't seem to shake this feeling of worry or sadness. I am dedicated to helping you in understanding your depression, anxiety, adult ADHD, relationship distress/sexual difficulties, gender identity issues, & parent-child relationships (just to name a few) and assisting you in making the changes to improve.

Inner Compass Counseling provides a safe container for those who desire self-discovery and an enhanced sense of intuition (connection with inner self). The aim is to provide a variety of empowering explorations and reflections as each person travels their individual path toward wholeness and authenticity. Through conscious exploration that includes the four bodies: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual, we can explore ways to move through life deeply aligned with our own sense of purpose and find our True North.

Life is a series of challenges in different stages, requiring us to find balance in all types of relationships, navigating through various barriers in our environment. Managing it alone can feel overwhelming, stressful, and lonely. These challenges also bring about the discovery of individual strength, self-exploration, and personal growth. Therapy helps and supports the process that you seek. I meet you where you are in life and create a safe space to support your journey.

We welcome you to Evergreen! We are a private practice group of compassionate and skilled Clinical Psychologists, Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselors in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. We understand it's not easy to open up to someone you don't know, but we strive to make your experience as easy and comfortable as possible. We are here to support you, to help develop workable solutions, and to improve overall health and well-being. We know that change and happiness are possible. You don't have to struggle; help is available. Our office staff are here and want to hear from you.

I recognize the strength and courage it takes to seek support, and I believe this is a sign of your resilience. My aim is to create a collaborative relationship with you that is supportive, compassionate, validating, and connected. One of my highest values as a therapist is to meet you where you are, and to work with you toward increasing emotional safety. I value a gentle, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive approach, and we will move at your pace. I specialize in working with highly sensitive people, codependency, childhood emotional neglect, trauma, anxiety, depression, shame, and challenging family relationships.

Accepting new clients! I help people overcome difficulty and use it to grow and pursue a life of meaning and purpose. Sometimes we start by treating stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, career, or LGBTQ+ and other identity issues, and over time turn to deeper issues about the life you want to create, your identity, and your values. I’m a humanistic counselor, which means I’ll never tell you what to do and I’ll always empower you to make the choice that’s best for you. I use a collaborative, gentle approach that helps you connect with your intuitive sense of self and your intrinsic motivation to grow and do difficult things.

For over 40 years I have sought to understand truth and wisdom. I've come to recognize the nature of suffering and each persons desire for release from suffering. I know that healing is a gentle unfolding, created with correct individual guidance, support and care. This assists each person's understanding of their personnel truth and authenticity, which leads a deeper inner awareness of true self, inner wisdom and to peaceful liberation.

Finding the right support is important. It takes courage to seek help when you are hurting. Perhaps life has brought you challenges and transitions that feel overwhelming, My goal is to meet you where you are and provide a warm and collaborative environment in which you are supported, cared for, and seen. I can provide you with tools to help rebalance your life so that you can move forward with confidence and clarity. Together let’s create the beautiful story of the life your heart knows is possible. Give me a call and let's find out if we are a good fit.