Psychotherapy for individuals, couples and groups in Maine & Washington
If you’re like most of us, you didn’t get much of a blueprint for how to figure out this whole ‘being a person with emotions in a disconnected world’ thing. Certainly no blueprint for dealing with trauma, which all of us have to some degree. Many of us grew up in families that knew very little about mental health, and did not exactly prepare us to take good care of ourselves emotionally.
It’s basically a universal experience in this culture. Somewhere along the way, you were hurt, and you felt alone with that hurt, and so you learned to do what we all do: you buried the pain. And you lost contact with an essential part of yourself in the process.
I’m Paley.
I’m here to help you reconnect to the joy of being alive, face the pain standing in your way, and learn the mental health skills that someone else should’ve taught you a long time ago.
We’ve all got demons. They don’t have to run your life.
Those parts of us that don’t know how to connect emotionally. We beat ourselves up or we numb ourselves to our feelings and self-medicate. We avoid intimacy with others and we lose our passion and our sense of purpose in life.
Therapy is a resource that will show you how you became disconnected from yourself and what you can do to change that. The more you learn about yourself, the more you heal. We’ll both be explorers together, with your inner world as the terrain. As a somatic psychotherapist, I’ll be teaching you how to become more aware of yourself through your bodily experience. Our bodies tell the story of what we’ve been through and what we need to heal. It’s up to us to tune into the body’s story.
For example: did you know that your breathing patterns are a signal of what you’re feeling unconsciously? It’s the level of the unconscious mind that is of greatest interest to us in therapy, because that’s where all our wounds live. If we only focused on the stuff you’re already thinking about all the time, you could just talk to anyone who would listen. Therapy is more sophisticated than that. We want to uncover what’s buried beneath the surface. It helps to do that with someone who has some training, who can be a mirror for you to see yourself in new ways.
As your therapist, I bring a balance of compassion, honesty, warmth and authenticity. I will become one of your biggest supporters, and I won’t be shy about it.
Some of the more common issues I help people with:
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Anxiety & Depression
Anxiety and depression are both signals that you haven’t learned how to use your emotions as the tools that they are, probably because no one taught you how. I’m here to do just that.
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Codependency & Relationship Issues
Intimate relationships are incredibly powerful. Sometimes this power helps us to heal, and sometimes it wounds us. If we have the proper skills for navigating the realms of intimacy, we can ensure that our relationships serve our highest good.
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Addiction
Addiction thrives on shame and secrecy. Therapy is the place where shame and secrecy come to die. You do the math.
Things don’t have to suck forever.
Take the next step.
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Schedule a Consultation
Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation to decide if I’m the right therapist for you.
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Take control of your life
Inner freedom is possible—and I’m here to walk the path with you.