jessamyn wesley (she/her)

Psychodynamic 

Our past experiences, relationships, and the society we live in, together shape our beliefs and perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world. Self-reflection can lead to insights of the dynamics between past and present, emotions and beliefs, self and other, society and individual. Early life experiences play a significant role in forming relational expectations. Anxieties, including conflict within the self, can lead to patterns of defense mechanisms. Understanding of self can bring change.

Narrative 

Throughout our lives, we accumulate beliefs based on our experiences, and messages from others (including society and our communities). This constellation of expectations and interpretations can become rigid, foreclosing our recognition of possibilities for change and alternative perspectives. Through collaborative discussion, narrative therapy seeks to discover new and different ways of articulating experiences and self, opening the way for change.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

I incorporate skills and psychoeducation from DBT, when it is helpful for clients. DBT skills and information can be beneficial in developing self-awareness, emotional regulation, interpersonal relationships and communication, tolerating distress, and dialectical thinking. DBT offers a more structured approach to building emotional vocabulary, challenging dichotomas thinking, implementing routines and self-care, navigating relationship challenges, coping with difficult experiences and emotions.

Feminist

The personal, political, and structural realities call us to explore distributions of power in our lives, and cast a wider frame of context and historicity to comprehend ourselves. In deconstructing the role of binaries and hierarchies, we can see our personal experiences in a different way. Utilizing an analysis of social and political categories, in conjunction with material dimensions leads to a deeper understanding of influences on beliefs and behaviors.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing involves meeting people where they are, developing an understanding of their relationship to change, and collaborating to achieve the goals they have for themselves. It can also involve encouraging people towards awareness of the need for, or possibility of, change.

Political Climate

Processing the emotional, psychological, material, and societal effects of political-economic and climate realities can be vital in determining a course forward. Insight regarding your suffering, and expanding the capacity to tolerate and respond, can lead to more effective and sustainable ways of approaching crises. In developing clarity, integrity, and frameworks of meaning, you can locate ways to resist, develop agency, contribute to change, and move into collective action.

LGBTQ Issues

Gender and sexuality are socially located, historically contextual, deeply complex, and personally specific experiences. Aspects of gender and sexuality may be peripheral, central, or fluctuating in the focus of our therapeutic work. I draw from extensive professional and personal experiences within LGBTQ+ communities, always cognizant of the parameters of my understandings, emphasizing the distinct ways each person inhabits gender and sexuality.

Eating Disorder

How we relate to appetite and hunger, food and eating, taste and nourishment, and our bodies are intertwined with socio-political, material, and cultural conditions. Food, eating, and our bodies are simultaneously visceral and symbolic. I approach difficulties with food, eating, and body image by weaving analysis of the social and political dimensions, and exploration of personal experiences. I am attentive to possible needs for coordination with outside medical and nutritional support.

OCD

Patterns of obsession and compulsion can manifest in myriad ways, often demonstrating methods of coping with underlying and unbearable pain or distress. Through exploring the underlying beliefs, and functions, of the obsessive and compulsive patterns, we can understand their purpose in your life. Along with insight regarding the psychological and behavioral dimensions of OCD, I incorporate exposure practices, as wanted.