Wellness First:
Counseling and Consultation
Therapy for Caregivers Coping with Anxiety, Stress, and Grief
Serving Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, and the Greater Philadelphia Region
How can I be doing so much - and yet it never feels like enough?
If you’re grappling with this question, you have come to the right place. Everyone has a story of caregiving. Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, stress, grief, life transitions, serious illness, burnout, or just feeling “stuck,” therapy for caregivers can help. You’re not a problem that needs to be solved but a person who’s been spread too thin and needs support, space to process, and a safe, confidential, non-judgmental space.
You’re the expert in your own life, but even high-achieving, hard-working people like us need help sometimes to clarify our struggles, reflect on how our past impacts our present, and form strategies for achieving our goals. In a word, we all need help to find better ways of coping. Once we’ve explored and strengthened our coping skills, we can make positive choices for lasting change and growth.
Clarifying your values and goals, processing uncomfortable emotions, reflecting on old patterns that might need to shift, and talking through tough choices can all help you move forward. With the right support, you can find your center again and make choices that work for you.
“To be ‘well’ is not to live in a state of perpetual safety and calm, but to move fluidly from a state of adversity, risk, adventure, or excitement, back to safety and calm, and out again. Stress is not bad for you; being stuck is bad for you… Wellness is thus not a state of being; it is a state of action.”
-Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
My Specialties
-
Physicians, Healthcare Workers, Therapists, and Other Helping Professionals
Everyone seems to want more work while providing less support and affirmation for professional caregivers. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers along with teachers, clergy, mental health professionals, and a host of others are left feeling tired, stressed, and alone. You’ve worked really hard to get where you are professionally, but maybe you’re so frustrated with leadership, systems, or patients that you’re ready to quit.
I’ve worked with many helping professionals like you, and I understand how hard it is to reach out, as well as the high value of confidentiality for someone in your field. I know your needs are unique, and I know the culture of your profession can feel like a barrier. Don’t let that stand in your way. Therapy will help clarify your challenges, re-connect with the meaning in your work, and give you tools to combat stress and burnout.
-
Family Caregivers and Those Coping with Serious Illness, Anxiety, and Loss
Loss comes in many forms, from a difficult life transition or diagnosis of a serious illness to the loss of a loved one - through death, divorce, estrangement, or any type of separation. Whatever the nature of your transition or grief, it can be helpful to process what you’re feeling and to navigate your “new normal” with extra support and knowledge.
In grief work we often use the adage, “the only way out is through.” But there is no need to be alone on the road. We’ll work together to help you process your loss and begin to find what lies ahead.
Maybe you’re coping with aging parents, a partner with a chronic illness, a child with special needs, or your own diagnosis of a serious illness. Talking with doctors can be like trying to learn a different language. It’s all exhausting, and you feel like your whole world is falling apart. Maybe you’d like support with keeping your own “center” while effectively supporting a loved one. We can work together to build your insight and a better toolbox for taking care of you, too.
-
Clinical Supervision and Professional Consultation
For social workers in healthcare fields ready to seek clinical licensure, I offer supervision either in-person or online. This means if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania, we can make a supervision plan that works for you. Contact me to see if we’re a good fit.
We’ll work together to ensure you have the support you need to face the challenge of achieving clinical licensure. Review tough cases, reflect on your own relationship with your work, and practice connecting theory with intervention. This is an important step in your career, and together we can craft a supervision plan that best meets your needs.
If you’re a licensed therapist or other licensed professional seeking consultation on working with caregivers, other helping professionals experiencing stress and burnout, those coping with grief and loss, or ethical dilemmas in practice, I would be happy to talk with you about an individual case or to establish an ongoing relationship for consultation.
Care for Caregivers
You’re accustomed to caring for others - as a professional, because you stepped up when a family member needed help, or because it’s just part of who you are. Caregiving can be a gift. It can also feel overwhelming and lonely, and caregivers can burn out without support.
