Blue Heron Family Counseling of West Olympia

Welcome!  My practice is currently accepting clients: individuals, couples family and children.  We assist in the treating of anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction and post-traumatic stress.  Since 1988 I  have worked with children's behavioral and trauma related issues in a variety of environments: my office, in homes, schools, hospitals, state institutions and foster care settings.   

I believe that all people, once allowed access to their basic physical needs, can find their own way to fulfillment. Our answers are already within us waiting to come out. We have an innate power, an intrinsic desire for balance and healing.  I am committed to customizing my work to suite and respect all genders, orientations, and ways of being.  

Discussions about the nature of therapy, about what is taking place (and what is not working) are an essential part of my practice. I do not hold my therapy cards close to my chest…there are no tricks or manipulations to my trade. Your questioning, curious mind will be needed for healing. 

With this commitment in mind, I do follow systems theory, including family of origin exploration.  I am also a practitioner of mindfulness therapeutic techniques, including teaching the simple techniques of meditation and breath work. It is proving to be one of the best techniques for allowing the toleration and observation of distress, so important in the treating of trauma.  

I assist clients in finding the direction and motivation necessary to begin new paths, or, oftentimes, to circle back to those unexplored paths long left behind. I have extensive experience working with children and adolescents with oppositional defiant behavior and addictive behavior. I have also worked with children experiencing normal adjustment conflicts, such as your kindergartner’s mind numbing repetition of the word "no." I have often found that the solutions to these differing children's issues to be nearly identical. As we compassionately explore our own childhood, our families and the inner emotional life we developed while there, we can begin to effectively address our child's behavior.  Our children and loved ones change, to the best of their ability, when we change

Many clients, consumed by fear, worry and the need for safety, engage in sending themselves negative, self-controlling messages.  Others over indulge in memories, or create unrealistic fears that lead to confusion, pain and the false belief that what we “think” is real. All alone, we can cause our lives to be imbalanced, to move erratically.  Overtime, this anxiety wears the body down, leading to fatigue and depression. For others, depression itself leads to fears and anxiety over never being able to get out from under the dark cloud. I feel it is important for clients to redefine depression for themselves, to explore their historic relationships to normal patterns of sadness, boredom and grief…emotions difficult and confusing in themselves.  Our unrealistic fears and the weight put on us by depression can hold us back from being present to who we are. 

For those interested, I also assist with dream analysis, nutrition coaching, smoking cessation and personal goal setting...this includes figuring out why previous set goals have been falling short