Therapists for college students near Philadelphia, PA
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Pennsylvania since 2008. I have been in the mental health field over 20 years, working in various capacities in different position.s More specifically, I have been in private practice for the last 14 years and am also a therapist at Penn State University. I provide individual, family and couples therapy. I specialize in ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, PTSD and Grief and Loss issues. I have a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seton Hill University in 2005 and a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University in 2000.
Do you ever just want someone to talk to who is not judgmental, and will offer sound advice for no other reason than wanting you to feel better? My sole job is to help you feel heard, understood and supported in whatever area in which you are struggling. I have helped people for over 25 years make their way to a more stable and healthier spot in life. Whether you are struggling with OCD, stress, depression, trauma or just not quite feeling settled, set up a time to talk.
https://bellavitacounselingllc.com/
Do you ever feel “stuck” in life? Do you feel discouraged or struggle to make changes to promote healing and growth? Are you ready to take the first step? Let me help guide you to make these changes consciously. My job is to help you find the answers you are looking for to live the life you want and deserve. Together we can work to identify goals and establish a treatment plan that is tailored to your individual needs. My focus of counseling is rooted in cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness while also creating a safe and therapeutic environment. Through therapy and helping you understand the root of your beliefs and thoughts, you can change and let go of any unwanted thoughts and behaviors so you can live a life worth living. I have extensive experience treating individuals with substance use disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, grief and loss, trauma, and relationship issues. It is important to me to foster an environment where you can safely and freely explore, expand and grow into your most authentic self. I’m here to help you in this journey.
Your emotions have felt too overwhelming to acknowledge, so you try to ignore them, but they spill over into your daily life. You become triggered and have difficulty managing those emotions when they come to the surface. Negative thoughts pop into your head, and you spiral, believing your inner critic's every word. But you're ready to break free from the old story. If you are feeling the ripple effects of past trauma or experience intense emotions such as shame, sadness, low self-esteem, anger, or anxiety, I know how to help!
I believe that a strong therapeutic rapport is the heart of meaningful growth in therapy. When we feel truly seen, heard, and understood, we are better able to explore our experiences, reflect on our patterns, and take steps toward change. My goal is to create a space where clients feel safe, respected, and comfortable to be themselves, no matter what challenges they may be facing. My approach to therapy is person-centered, which means I value each client’s unique perspective and believe that you are the expert of your own life. I work alongside my clients, offering support, guidance, and encouragement as we navigate the journey together. I strive to meet people where they are, honoring their pace while helping them uncover new insights and tools for growth. I hold a Master’s degree in Art Therapy with a Specialization in Counseling and am a Registered Art Therapist. Creativity can be a powerful way to explore feelings and experiences that are difficult to put into words. In sessions, I often incorporate art and the creative process to help clients process emotions, gain clarity, and express themselves in new ways. Whether through drawing, painting, collage, or other forms of artmaking, this approach allows for deeper self-understanding and healing beyond traditional talk therapy. I also bring personal experience to my work, having navigated the loss of my father at a young age. Experiencing grief firsthand has given me a deep understanding of the complexities of loss. This experience informs my approach to grief therapy, allowing me to connect with clients in a compassionate and authentic way. In addition to my art therapy work, I am currently pursuing my Animal-Assisted Therapy Certificate. I am excited to soon integrate my therapy dog-in-training, Bear, into sessions as a comforting and supportive presence. Animals can offer a unique kind of connection and grounding that supports emotional regulation and overall well-being. I have experience working with children, teens, and adults in a variety of settings, including partial hospitalization, inpatient, residential treatment, and outpatient therapy. My specialties include supporting individuals through anxiety, depression, grief and loss, and significant life transitions. I am especially passionate about working with clients during times of change—whether it’s starting a new school, transitioning to college, beginning a new career, or navigating changes in relationships or identity. No matter your reason for seeking therapy, my hope is to create an environment where you feel safe to explore your inner world, discover your strengths, and find meaningful ways to move forward.
Welcome! I enjoy working collaboratively with folks to identify new coping skills, process difficult emotions, memories, and thoughts. My clients often are adolescents or young adults seeking assistance with social anxiety, stressful life transitions, depression, gender identity, sexuality, relationship and/or family conflicts.
Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, constant stress, depression, anger, or difficulty sleeping. I provide therapy to those who are ready to feel more in control of their thoughts, emotions, and daily life. Therapy offers a space where you can slow down, gain clarity, and begin making meaningful changes. My approach is supportive, practical, and focused on helping you understand the patterns contributing to stress, anxiety, anger, depression, and insomnia. Together, we work to build effective strategies so you can feel calmer, think more clearly, improve your mood, and regain a sense of balance. Clients often appreciate having a therapist who is fully present, easy to talk to, and genuinely invested in their growth. Many begin to notice positive changes as they engage in therapy and apply the skills we develop together. Whether you are dealing with ongoing anxiety, burnout, low mood, irritability, or insomnia, you do not have to continue managing it alone.
Life is full of challenges that test our resilience and leave us questioning or doubting ourselves. Therapy is a place to get the support you need to move forward and discover new meaning and joy in your world. While I tend to focus on the here and now of life’s obstacles, during therapy, we will likely explore family patterns and incorporate mindfulness to help you feel more in control in the future. I focus on working with young adults as they navigate various life transitions. My approach is warm and collaborative. I welcome diversity and honor your unique experience. I have a particular interest in working with individuals experiencing concerns about their sexuality. Deciding to get the help you need is an incredibly brave first step to feeling better. It is important we recognize that bravery and build on the courage that’s already in you to face life’s difficult moments.
I am a Psychotherapist and Psychoanalyst with many years of experience working with undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. I worked for many years at Carnegie Mellon Counseling Center before transitioning to full time in my private practice 15 years ago. I work with a wide range of difficulties including stress, anxiety, sadness, feeling overwhelmed, difficulties with academics or relationships, family difficulties, homesickness, procrastination, concentration or motivation difficulties, uncertainty about life direction. I help students in both practical and deeper ways. I work well with students who want to understand themselves and their symptoms, and are open to exploring how and why their difficulties have come about in addition to developing better coping mechanisms. I often see students who have seen other therapists and have not felt a good connection or felt the therapy was not helpful. I am warm, empathetic and good at engaging adolescents and young adults. I offer practical techniques to address symptoms such as mindfulness, meditation and relaxation strategies if desired. In addition, I engage students in looking deeper for more lasting change. I see people virtually and have some in person slots at my office in Squirrel Hill.
Therapy is a process. When looking for a therapist, you want someone who can see your goals and provide insight into how they can become reality. Therapy isn’t something that you can just come into one session and be magically healed. When I say therapy is a process, I mean, that therapy comes with challenges, but also rewards. If you can be completely open and honest in this process, I can promise that I will not only work to be a guiding light in this fog you are walking through, but also someone who is going to challenge you and help you bring your inner dialogue out. When I am working with a client, I will bring strategies that you can implement, challenging questions, and overwhelming support. There are going to be days where you may feel like giving up on your ideas, dreams, or passions but I want to remind you that resilience isn’t just about being able to take pain, but resilience is fighting for a future you want. I work with a multitude of specialities including beauty standards, colorism, stress from the political climate, trauma responses, parenting and how your childhood impacts this, social anxiety. Some of the specialties that I focus on are Beauty standard/colorism. We live in a society where European standards seem to be the beauty standard but beauty comes in different shades as well as different shapes. It’s not society‘s job to tell you what makes you beautiful, it’s your own job to remind you that you are beautiful the way you are And how you interpret that in your day-to-day life. Identity also plays a part in my specialties. Being a biracial woman myself, I hold space for Multiple aspects of identity. Every person you know has intersectional pieces of their identity and what I work on is understanding those pieces and how they work to frame your decisions, choices and life. Working through trauma experiences can be difficult. Things that you may not even think to be triggers such as certain sounds you hear, a song that plays at a restaurant, or even the smell of a cologne can completely change your mood. I specialize in working through trauma experiences due to incest. Especially if these experiences are continuing to impact you through the role of a parent. As a parent, you’re already going through mental gymnastics, whether or not you should let your kid out to be at a sleepover party or finding that they have a group of friends that were similar to yours as a kid. Rather than internalizing these fears, I want to create an open discussion where we can process your feelings and thoughts, give you validity to your emotions, but also give you the better understanding that all these emotions still impact your child. Lastly, in the climate that we’re in, politics should not be an issue we avoid. Whether you are on the right or left side, there are things that are happening in current news today that may be impacting you emotionally, financially, and maybe even physically. As your therapist, I’m here to not only just listen to you but also give you the chance to have your voice heard even if you have family with opposing views, friends with opposing views or even neighbors. The therapeutic process does not need to be one that is shortened by fear. Coming into a therapy session, I want you to feel like you have room to talk and that someone is actually listening. This isn’t just an hour of your time that you hope your therapist is making it a safe space but it’s an hour of your time that you were working towards a goal, something that you want in life. I don’t want to just create a safe space for you, I want to help you create a space where your inner thoughts can be heard, validated and respected.
I know that making the decision to seek help can bring up difficult feelings, which is why as a therapist I seek to create an honest, authentic, and supportive relationship with my clients. By creating a sense of safety with one another we can work together to address your most immediate concerns, while simultaneously using our time as an opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with yourself and your experiences. I practice from an Existential-Integrative perspective, incorporating elements from psychodynamic, interpersonal and experiential techniques in my work with clients. This approach extends beyond your symptoms and into an exploration of what it means for you to live a fulfilling life, as well as what may be holding you back. Wellness is experienced differently by everyone and together we can explore what it means for you to live well and begin the process of working towards that together. I have experience working with those struggling with experiences of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal concerns.
Finding calm and clarity when your mind won’t slow down is possible. I can guide the way. We have more influence over our thoughts than we realize. In our work, you’ll learn to approach your thinking more intentionally. As your thoughts change, you’ll start to notice changes in how you feel, the choices you make, and how you move through your life. I help clients slow things down, make sense of what’s been difficult, and address the patterns that keep them feeling stuck. This often includes working through anxiety, depression, and the impact of trauma and past experiences. I also support women navigating life transitions, helping them feel more grounded and steady through change. My approach is thoughtful and practical, combining insight with tools you can use in your day-to-day life.
We are an Integrative Therapy Practice. Clients often face emotional, mental, and physical challenges in their lives. To better prepare them, we often incorporate a combination of traditional and emerging practices. This integrative therapy strives to promote healing by creating both a healthy mind and body. Our licensed professional counselors use this approach in helping clients manage the strong emotional and physical stressors that interfere with their relationships at home, work or school. In addition to our counseling services, some of the tools we recommend in our therapy include massage, yoga, meditation, and diet. Our clinicians provide both in-person and telehealth sessions.
Seeking help requires courage and strength, and I applaud you for the steps you have already taken in your journey. The demands of life are vast, but I believe they can feel a little lighter with a supportive, affirming presence by your side. I am committed to providing a compassionate, accepting, collaborative, and empowering space for you. I firmly believe each person possess an incredible capacity for enhancing their well-being, and I am honored to accompany you on your journey of healing and personal growth. I am a trained Art Therapist. I believe art and creative expression have an incredible capacity for healing and transformation. Art has been instrumental in my own healing process, and I grateful to share this gift with others. I am passionate about helping people develop effecting coping skills and fulfilling forms of self-expression. I use multiple approaches in my practice to create an experience tailored to each client’s individual strengths, values, and goals. My theoretical orientation is eclectic but deeply rooted in humanistic theories, especially person-centered and gestalt. I also use narrative therapy techniques to empower individuals to tell their life story in their own words.
Stephanie is motivated to empower clients to achieve their goals and to improve their overall quality of life through variety of evidence-based techniques, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness practices. She believes in a holistic approach to mental health and sport performance, addressing both the mind and body.
I believe that therapy is collaborative process between the client and the therapist which assists in resolving client's specific needs and concerns, and enriches the overall quality of the client's life beyond just problem solving. I truly enjoy working with young adults that are going through life's transitions, whether is be: moving away from home, attending college, exploring new relationships, managing stress and anxiety. I also can assist with depression and feeling overwhelmed, family conflict, self esteem, unresolved trauma, grief/loss, and management of daily life stressors.
Mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety, anger, stress, etc., are just that- symptoms! These symptoms come from somewhere in your life, it is your bodies way of telling you "something's not right" or "there needs to be a change here." It is my passion to help one figure out what these symptoms are trying to tell them. After we understand the message we will work to build knowledge, mindsets, skills, and other insights to continue growth and prevent those symptoms from returning or reduce the impact they have on ones life.