Vanessa Newell, MA, LMFTA
APPROACH
RELATIONAL
As relational beings, loving and supportive relationships can give us the power to heal from childhood wounding, traumas, and harmful beliefs about ourselves. Therapeutic relationships provide an opportunity to help us witness our patterns, see ourselves in new ways, and give us the security to explore new paths for ourselves.
COLLABORATIVE
I see therapy as a relational alliance, where you are the expert on your own life. As the therapist, my role is to walk alongside you as a supporting, reflective, and gently challenging presence in your search for healing and wholeness.
EMPOWERING
Through a collaborative stance, I seek to encourage and empower you towards a deep and authentic knowing of your own truth. It is from seeing ourselves through another's eyes that we come to know ourselves better and it is through another's compassion that we learn to have compassion for ourselves.
Theoretical Foundation
"Therapy is not a matter of doing something to the individual, or inducing him to do something about himself. It is instead a matter of freeing him for normal growth and development, of removing obstacles so that he can again move forward."
~Carl Rodgers
First and foremost, humanistic therapy informs us that true change comes from a genuine therapeutic relationship built on trust, curiosity and positive regard. As a Couples and Family Therapist I have been specifically trained to think systemically about how your struggles are both impacting your relationships to others and self, and are often in turn, supported by them. This means that as clients enter counseling as members of multiple environments, systems and relationships, I work to move beyond simply the causality of your struggle, and into a more holistic and circular perspective on what is keeping you from the change you want to see. I see therapy as a process of getting to know ourselves and our struggles deeply. Through insight, emotional processing, and learning to treat our wounded parts with compassion, natural change and growth is not only possible, but inevitable. My particular areas of interest include relationships, attachment, relational trauma, shame, anxiety, spirituality, existential concerns, vocation, search for meaning, culture, societal oppression and privilege, differentiation, self-esteem and identity development.
Within this framework I integrate concepts and interventions from Attachment Theory, Mindful Self - Compassion Practices, Narrative Therapy, Non-Violent Communication, Bowenian Family Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and Internal Family Systems (IFS).
"The curious paradox is that, when I accept myself as I am, then I can change."
Carl Rogers