Marisa Lindsey (she/they)

"Mindfulness" is often packaged with the agenda of changing or managing patterns of behaviors. I do not approach mindfulness as a way to increase focus and wrangle unwanted thoughts, or to "control" unwanted emotions. Mindfulness includes a diverse array of practices of fully embodied awareness of experience. As a certified yoga instructor, I draw from my own learning and experience with yoga, movement-based mindfulness and breath-work to support you in developing a practice of ease.

IFS therapy is non-judgmental, self-empowering, and helps us "go inside" to meet our team of parts who may support us or hinder us. We all have the capacity to extend self-compassion to all our parts, to access a safe space of witnessing. In turn, our parts all hold keys to healing past traumas and addictions, symptoms of anxiety, over-exhaustion, grief and depression - when we make the time to get to know parts one at a time. 200+ hours of IFS training, certification pending.

If traditional abstinence-only addiction treatment, which can encourage shame or may utilize coercive behavior-management techniques, has felt unhelpful, or even harmful, working with addiction in a harm-reduction setting may be for you. My approach to addiction is grounded in harm-reduction. My goal is to support you in establishing healthy boundaries for your own personal safety and the safety of those around you, while you work towards unburdening addictive patterns of behavior.

Significant mental health symptoms and crisis is not a pre-requisite for coming to therapy. In other words, if you can identify a need for outside support for any reason whatsoever, and are reluctant due to stigma, or having trouble "making the time," let me encourage you to reach out to meet with me. I often say to clients who struggle with seeking support, "sometimes you just need someone without a horse in the race of your life to be with you as you sort things out."

Significant mental health symptoms and crisis are not a pre-requisite for coming to therapy. In other words, if you can identify a need for outside support for any reason whatsoever, and are reluctant due to stigma, or having trouble "making the time," let me encourage you to reach out to meet with me. I often say to clients who struggle with seeking support, "sometimes you just need someone without a horse in the race of your life to be with you as you sort things out."

Whether you have been formally diagnosed with PTSD, or are coming to terms with the impact of one or more traumatic experiences, I am here to support you. Flashbacks, nightmares, sleep disturbance, hyper-vigilance and angry outbursts are systemic responses to the trauma. Don't feel you need to fit your trauma story in a box - trauma can show up as chronic pain and addiction, too. What can't be shared feels overwhelming, and others may find it hard to understand. Healing trauma is possible.

Significant mental health symptoms and crisis are not a pre-requisite for coming to therapy. If you identify a need for support for any reason whatsoever, but are reluctant due to stigma, or have trouble "making the time," let me encourage you to reach out to meet with me. Sometimes you need someone without "a horse in the race" to accompany you toward insight, self-discovery and self-empowerment.

Many of us come into the helping profession because "we've been there." We want to offer hope, support and a healing space. However, we may encounter ableism or micro-aggressions from other professionals in the field, or feel our trauma triggered in the course of helping others. This can feel so isolating, especially if we don't feel like we have a voice. I am passionate about supporting "healing healers" reclaim their voice, and feel safe and embodied in their work.

Significant mental health symptoms are not a pre-requisite for needing support. If you identify a need for professional support for any reason whatsoever, but are reluctant because you "don't feel *that* bad" or struggle to find the time or fear stigma, let me encourage you to reach out to meet with me. Don't let fear diagnosis stop you from accessing the help you need. Sometimes one needs a trained professional to support insight, self-discovery and self-empowerment.

Whether you have been formally diagnosed with PTSD, or are coming to terms with the impact of one or more traumatic experiences, I am here to support you. Flashbacks, nightmares, sleep disturbance, hyper-vigilance and angry outbursts are systemic responses to the trauma. Don't feel you need to fit your trauma story in a box - trauma can show up as chronic pain and addiction, too. When experiences like these aren't shared, they overwhelm. Healing trauma is possible.

Whether you have been formally diagnosed with PTSD, or are coming to terms with the impact of one or more traumatic experiences, I am here to support you. Flashbacks, nightmares, sleep disturbance, hyper-vigilance and angry outbursts are systemic responses to the trauma. Don't feel you need to fit a narrative - trauma can show up as chronic pain, addiction, extreme self-judgement. When experiences like these aren't shared, they overwhelm us. Healing trauma is possible.

Abstinence is often a prerequisite of receiving help with addiction. Withdrawing support due to relapse is traumatizing. Traditional, abstinence-only addiction treatment is not for everyone, and often relies on shame and coercive behavioral-management techniques as "support." If you have felt deterred from continuing to seek help because abstinence-contingent treatment has not worked for you, a harm-reduction approach can offer a safe, empowering space for healing.

Receiving a personality disorder diagnosis such as Borderline Personality Disorder can feel extremely disorienting. Seeking a personality disorder diagnosis might feel like steady ground. Either way, it is hard finding a genuine space to explore your personal experience, and how carrying this diagnosis may be a relief, or an extreme judgement, or both. I offer a trauma-informed, healing-centered, Internal Family Systems approach.

If you have experienced feeling hijacked by extreme mental or emotional states, and notice periods of checking out or experiencing other dissociative symptoms, a trauma-informed, healing-centered approach to Internal Family Systems can help you increase curiosity and compassion that are necessary for insight. It is possible to be more aware and attuned to what is going on inside without feeling overwhelmed, and to experience relief and ease.

Plural positive.