Marissa Skipper

So I got started in therapy because I saw the difference that it made in my own life. I just experienced the longing to change some of my habits and some of my unhealthy ways of thinking and when I saw that it was possible. I just wanted to share it with other people and let other people know that there is hope, and that you can change. And I just really wanted to be part of that. I love coming alongside of people, empowering them, helping them to believe in themselves. Yeah, so I just really believe in the power to change, and I really want to spread that hope to as many people as I can.

There could be a variety of reasons why you might be hesitant to start therapy. You might be afraid to feel the emotions that will come up. You might not want to re experience traumatic events in your life or you may just feel shame over the things that you know you need to talk about. But what I want you to know is that there is so much power in bringing those things to light. And my whole job is to walk alongside of you in the process of feeling painful feelings or re experiencing traumatic events, and I can equip you with the tools that you'll need to go through those things. I know it's cliche but the only way through is through, and with hard things in life really there's no easy solution. So, I just, I think that people that go out and seek therapy are so brave, and I know how it feels to sit across from somebody and to share intimate things because I've done it before so I can definitely relate to being in that position. But I would say just find a therapist that you feel comfortable with, and that you feel confident in and that you feel safe with, and that alone is a really great step in the right direction.

So, what I would like people to know about me, or think about working with me is first, even though I'm an LCSW registered intern I am done with my school so I graduated with my master's in social work, and I'm now under supervision for my clinical license, which is basically just like a doctor who's in residency at a hospital can't just go out on his own and open his own medical practice without practicing under somebody first it's the same thing for mental health practitioners. So that's what intern means in terms of my style and just what it would be like to work with me I'm a very collaborative type of therapist. I'm not prescriptive. I definitely would not ever tell you what to do or what not to do, because I think that everybody has a sense of what they want. And my job is just to be a non judgmental objective observer. I love to hear where people are coming from and to reflect back to them what I'm hearing. And at the same time there is a science to therapy, which is why a lot of people seek therapists because you know, they think "if I knew what to do I would do it". So I want to I want to be helpful. I don't ever want to offer advice, or give solutions but I will be a guide, walking alongside you empowering you to find the solutions, and outcomes that you want to see.

Our first session together would be an exploratory session so this is where you get to know me and I get to know you and I come to understand your reason for seeking therapy. And that could be a variety of reasons. It could be anger issues, depression, anxiety, parenting, marital conflict, areas of past abuse, neglect, trauma, just whatever the case is. And once I have a good understanding of what you're seeking treatment for, we would together come up with two or three goals for treatment and these would be what things do you want to see changed by the time our relationship is over, we would discuss how frequently you want to meet, and we would discuss about how long you know, do we think that this change is possible and do you want to see this change in two months, three months 90 days what, you know what your parameters are. And then I would just get some background information from you just on just who you are as a person. Do you have any medical problems are you on medication. Do you have a family history of mental illness. What are your spiritual and religious beliefs, what's your culture like, how do you, how have you handled problems in the past so just that kind of things I can get an idea of who you are as a person. And then the subsequent sessions that we have would generally be from 15 minutes to an hour, and we would just be working through to meet the goals that you have and that could look a variety of ways, depending on what your problem is, so we might do some mindfulness exercises and I can teach you coping skills and relaxation techniques, or we could process, verbally through trauma or we could do some yoga. I mean, it just can look a million different ways and so every session is really tailored to you and to what your needs are. And if at any point in the process, you felt that it was headed in the wrong direction. You know, you would have full freedom to speak up. And I could also make referrals to other professionals for you if that was something that you felt like you needed.