Hello, and welcome!
I am so glad you landed here today.
My name is Greta, and I work as a psychotherapist and counselor in the state of Oregon. I opened my private practice five years ago.
A bit about who I am:
The first in my family to earn a college degree (and then a master's), I understand something about the impacts of not having access to resources - though I'm aware that, as a white person, I have been spared a great deal of anguish and torment perpetrated under white supremacy. When I started on the path to becoming a therapist, I was entering midlife, and as one does, took stock of my life. Ultimately I left a "good" job after four years of being (for the first time) in the middle class; I needed to build a more meaningful life. So I got involved with a variety of organizations doing good work. At Sisters of the Road, I helped cook and and serve quality, nutritious meals to unhoused folks. At Habitat for Humanity, I hammered in a new roof on a low-income townhouse. At Sun Community after-school program I helped kids with homework and learned that I have zero authority in a classroom of six year-olds. I helped facilitate a grief group for kiddos at the Dougy Center. I volunteered at an organization gathering neighborhood seniors for meals and music to replace isolation with joyful belonging. I volunteered weekly on a suicide hotline (this turned into a full time job when I went to grad school).
At the same time, I was interested in the healing potential of groups and went to every insight-oriented group I could find, from process groups to a meditation circles and even a dream group. I participated and then co-facilitated groups focused on authentic interactions. I participated in a training on confronting racism, and took an NVC (nonviolent communication) training at Wise Heart. During this time I sought out joy and honoring the body, and found ways to celebrate life: learning different dance styles, making music, painting, and dabbling in improvisational theater, and spending time with friends. A therapist friend convinced me to attend a two-year training in somatic psychotherapy, and once I started the training, it became obvious I needed to enroll in graduate school so I could become a licensed psychotherapist.
My training:
During grad school, I was fortunate to have a clinical internship that was unusually long: I spent a year and a half providing individual and group therapy at a community mental health agency in Vancouver, WA, where I was able to work with uninsured and Medicaid-insured clients. The agency served people from all walks of life and didn't gate-keep against anyone based on immigration status or for any other reason. I completed grad school at Adams State University in Colorado, and opened my private practice in early 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was getting underway.
I am constantly engaged in learning and expanding so I can bring more and more to the healing room. I am passionate about this work and the potential for deep and lasting change it offers.
As I write this in March 2025, I am training under Dr. Roy Barsness at the Contemporary Psychodynamic Institute in relational psychodynamic therapy to round out my more somatically-focused training and background. In previous years I have received training in Hakomi psychology, EMDR, Lifespan Integration, Gestalt, and IFS-informed parts work.
In my work with clients I offer a tailored combination of these methods that will best lead to a process of self-discovery and healing.
A personal passion
Helping others on their healing journey is deeply gratifying and enlivening work. In the role of helper I do my very best to listen deeply, with humility, to reflect thoughtfully, and to be active in helping people experience the real and lasting changes they want. I strive to remain humble, curious, and open, and acknowledge that each human is the ultimate expert about their own needs, life goals, and existential experience.
Who I treat:
I work with clients who are sensitive, creative, thoughtful and who are on a path to more healthful and meaningful living. I work with a range of therapeutic goals and needs, from life transitions and general support to acute PTSD symptoms and panic attacks.
I welcome clients of all genders, ethnicities, races, spiritual (or not) backgrounds, ages, sexual orientations, physical abilities and class statuses. I strive to be a useful and thoughtful helper and ally to members of groups to which I do not belong. I welcome feedback and am eager to learn and grow in my awareness of internal bias without making it anyone else's job to teach me.
Some of the problems I work with include excessive anxiety, panic, low self-worth, PTSD, complex trauma (CPTSD), interpersonal struggles, feelings of isolation or not fitting in, dissociation, and problems of sorting between what Dr. James Masterson calls the "false self" (or selves) from the "real self" that is the authentic expression of a person with full access to their creativity, energy and ability to recognize and pursue what s/he most wants in life.
EMDR
(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is an extremely effective treatment and has a wide range of applications. It is best known for its ability to help people process and release the effects of acute trauma as in PTSD, such as flashbacks, nightmares or intrusive thoughts. EMDR can also be highly effective in helping resolve and heal a variety of problems like negative beliefs about oneself, complex trauma, phobias, and so much more. Using EMDR within the safe container of therapy, the brain's natural healing ability is activated and the results are often quite stunning to clients. The results are lasting. I have heard client statements like "I never thought I could get past this" and "I can't believe how well this works." Clients I work with are often astonished by its effectiveness. If you are interested to know more, please scroll down for a video that goes into more detail, or ask me about it!
Lifespan Integration (LI) is a cousin of EMDR created in 2002 by a long-time EMDR therapist named Peggy Pace. LI uses the natural healing capacities of the brain-body system. With its narrative focus and the visceral emphasis on the passage of time, I think of this as a kind of EMDR for your life! LI offers a powerful healing experience: it helps people build a more cohesive autobiographical narrative, find more adaptive interpretations of traumatic events, and increases internal resilience so that clients spend more time in their window of tolerance, rather than in states of hypo-arousal (depression/withdrawal) or hyper-arousal (anxiety, panic). This process also tends to lead to a natural, spontaneous increase in compassion and self-love (because that is really our natural state!!) - and in turn, this is the foundation for healthy relationships. If you'd like to learn more, scroll down to check out the introduction video below.
Based in mindfulness and nonviolence, Hakomi Psychology assumes we each have an Organic Self with an innate drive toward wholeness and health. This underlying principle is shared with almost all other therapy modalities. Similar to IFS, Hakomi has a primary focus on helping you cultivate a friendly, nonjudgmental relationship with your whole self. With this approach, we help you get deeply curious about your inner world; here, your body acts as a doorway to a deeper understanding of core beliefs, assumptions and attitudes about yourself and your world. As we bring these elements more into your conscious awareness, you get more choice, and leverage to transform old patterns of thought that may be keeping you small. One of my clients described Hakomi therapy as "facilitated meditation," and most clients are surprised by how powerful the experience of turning inward feels, using this method.
Anxiety and depression can be mild, daily visitors set on a low hum, or they can be debilitating and extreme. Both can feel a lot like you're living with an enemy on the inside. Driving on the freeway, being in a social environment with others, and any number of other daily activities can become infused with out-of-control panic or anxiety. Depression symptoms may leave you feeling hopeless, unmotivated, fatigued, or flattened by shame and self-doubt. Avoidance becomes a problematic go-to behavior: avoidance of going places or being with people, avoidance of setting needed boundaries or having difficult but necessary conversations, even avoidance of being with your own emotions. Whether your symptoms are mild or severe, adding a professional perspective can help. I find that the clients I work with do best with a tailored, integrative approach--meaning we pull from a variety of techniques to address your specific situation. We can build you a toolkit and perhaps explore root causes/beliefs that keep you stuck. Please take heart; even though it may seem impossible to you now, this truly can change and you can feel better. Our time is short; you deserve to live a life in which you feel a sense of belonging, freedom, calm and connection. Let's find out together who you are when you're truly free.
Introduction to EMDR (about 10 minutes)
Introduction to Lifespan Integration (about 20 minutes)
Fees - Out-of-Pocket
Please discuss any sliding scale needs with me at our consultation if you are uninsured or needing to pay out of pocket for other reasons.
Insurances Accepted
Aetna
Care Oregon/Health Share OHP
Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oregon
Logistics
I offer Tele-health (video) therapy, during the week (M-F). Sessions are 50-60 minutes. A free consultation is available to you if you would like to talk more; please email me to schedule a consultation: AllOfYouIsWelcome@gmail.com.