Jessica Brohmer

I think a lot of the hesitation comes from not knowing what to expect. Can this person help me? Will it be worth the time and money? And of course there are no guarantees, but that's why I offer a free 15 minute consultation. At the end, if I feel like I'm not the best fit for you, I'm not going to waste your time! I'll help you find another therapist who is a better match for what you need. From research on how therapy works, we know the most important part is the relationship between you and your therapist. You have to be open and vulnerable. So it's important to take the time to find someone who really clicks with you, who you feel comfortable with.

I look for deeper insights into the patterns that are keeping you stuck. It's a gentle, nonjudgmental process, but it can feel very vulnerable to recognize how much your present issues are affected be messages, memories, and emotional congestion from your past. I use a holistic, attachment-focused lens to examine your history with a narrative psychodynamic interpretation. I also integrate EMDR to help you reprocess the things that are holding you back.

I love ACT. It's practical and direct, but it also recognizes that you can't just tell your inner critic to be quiet and expect it to listen. You have to learn to work with the difficulties and obstacles that life brings. The best part of ACT for me is the fact that it centers on mindfulness. You can't change what you're not aware of. And when you have a history of trauma, anxiety, stress, or anything like that, ACT invites us to look at how your choices might actually be strengthening those things instead of helping them heal.

I am a process-oriented therapist. What that means for you practically is that I do a lot of listening in session. I'm looking for patterns in what you say, and we'll use those patterns to gain insight into where your inner critic came from and what you can do about it.

Grief is an ongoing process, and it changes over time. When the grief is fresh, our priority is on getting you through the acute pain of the loss. If you're coming to therapy later on after the first few months, our focus might be more on processing through your thoughts, emotions, regrets, and ongoing difficulties. And if the grief still pains you years later, we might work through the parts of the loss that still feel fresh and painful despite the time that's passed. Grief work is different for anyone. Some people want skills to help evenings alone feel easier. Others need to process the trauma of witnessing a violent death. And some people just want someone to talk to who won't push them to move on or say they "should be over it by now."

I use Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR along with techniques from Brainspotting and Somatic Therapy modalities. These methods allow us to explore, reprocess, and resolve the intrusive symptoms and relational disruptions that come from your trauma.

My anxious clients often feel stuck in the middle. Their anxiety comes from people pleasing, perfectionism, and codependent habits. These habits were helpful at one time to keep them safe, but now in their adult lives, these strategies are no longer working in the same way. We often discover a history of relational trauma, broken attachments, and a deep core desire to be loved, seen, and respected. My approach to anxiety rooted in relational trauma is to unpack and reprocess the old memories and messages telling you that you're not enough, you don't matter, or you're too sensitive.

I use online video sessions to meet with my clients- yes, even for EMDR!

Managing stress comes down to one question: Is this something you can change? If you are able to do something about a stressful situation, I'll help you identify what needs to be done, deal with obstacles along the way, and follow through with the changes you need to make to reduce or eliminate the stress. If you're not able to change the person, situation, event, or thing that's causing your stress, we'll take another approach. This may be something you need to accept either temporarily or permanently, and we can work to change the way you relate to the source of your stress so you can adapt. Or if you can't change it and it's not something you want to accept, we can look honestly at your options. You may need to leave a relationship, quit a job, move to a new place, or take other steps to get out of the stress you can't change.