Licensed Professional Counselor
C7190
I begin with empathy for the challenge of being alive- to face struggles that are our human birthright and those specific to our time.
Client Status
503-558-5339
Portland, 97206
Rate: $100
Provides free initial consultation
Provides telehealth services
Practicing Since: 2012
Languages: English
Specialties
As social animals, relationships are the core of our well being. We learn them first in our caregivers' arms, and then through siblings, friends, & others. I have extensive training in relational therapy, using radical transparency in our therapeutic relationship to highlight & strengthen your relational capacities, assisting you to build healthier, stronger, mutually respectful bonds of your own.
None of us exists in a vacuum. We're embedded in systems large and small, and each of us in a family system. Often within these are our most precious and painful relationships- people who know how to push our buttons, patterns we can't seem to break. Family systems examines the push and pull of all members, acknowledging that every action is a reaction and that with awareness choice is possible.
Living is not for the faint of heart. To seek meaning and actively engage with an exploration of individual and collective humanity is a shifting lifelong journey. Existential therapy wrestles with matters of life and death, and what it means to you to be a human being with all the attendant pain, sorrow, joy, and questioning.
Specialties
Perhaps there is a story that you tell yourself about the person that you are, how others view you. You've been practicing and refining this story for years. Perhaps there is a part of you that rebels, suspects the 'truth' at the core of the narrative, insists you are worthy of love and competent in many areas of your life. Our sense of self forms early but is capable of continual evolution.
Grief is a normal part of a loving life, but it can be a time of confusion, isolation, and terrible emotional pain. Mourning the death of a loved one, or even an acquaintance or a change of life, can bring to the surface thoughts of one's own mortality and vulnerability to further pain. It can be complicated. Often there are collateral losses- changes in finances, community, and identity.
Anxiety comes in many forms- keeping you up at night, stomach turning, emotions at the surface, needing to control your environment, feeling overwhelmed in the face of seemingly small challenges. I welcome your anxious energy into the room. I'm curious about the way it seeks to protect you and move you. I offer a contained space to let your anxiety finally be fully heard and calmed.
Polly Harrison has not posted any group sessions.
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