Welcome
I am a licensed mental health counselor in Seattle, WA, practicing since 2014 and specializing in perfectionism, relationships, complex trauma, anxiety related disorders, and life transitions.
I help clients swiftly identify unsustainable patterns and ways to implement boundaries for living more nurturing, relationally oriented lives. This does not always equate to the easy road, though it is often toward a truer one.
As a psychodynamic and systems therapist, I center the values of mutual care, respect, and consideration at the heart of therapy. I consider the individual’s journey within the context of relationship because we are all everyday moving inside of community, culture, our work or service, and companionships.
I aim to ally with you through the soul-searching journey to owning your time, owning your story, and owning your part when the going gets tough. Supporting you around releasing what no longer serves, moving towards what does, and stepping into gentle accountability with grace, whether it’s change you’re after or transformation.
Themes We May Explore
Supporting your recovery from unsustainable patterns
Re-imagining career and creative life paths
Navigating life transitions
Processing loss and internal conflict
Exploring the impact of systemic oppression on your personhood
Identifying personal limits and boundaries
Sustaining self-care practices
Reframing self-esteem
Practicing self-acceptance and compassion
Decreasing stress and anxiety
Supporting your LGBTQI identity
Experimenting with a work-life balance
Deepening relationship with your intuitive nature
Providing psycho-education about toxic relational dynamics and managing psychological safety
My approach
We’ll take a strengths-based and behavioral approach, while gently exploring the patterns, habits, and environments that leave you feeling stuck. I believe therapy is most effective when we practice being open and conscientious, respectful, and pace change.
I hope to bring compassion to the challenges you face because change can be overwhelming, and we’re all learning and carrying wishes and fears.
Growth is an incremental process and at its best, individual healing exists on a parallel path with cultural evolution. I feel honored to work as a team with my clients and I welcome hearing from you.
“Most people think of love as a feeling but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.”
~ David Richo, How to Be an Adult in Relationships
EDUCATION
Washington State License #: LH60830622
MA, Counseling Psychology; Saybrook University, 2015
BA, Literature with a focus in Social Psychology; UNC Asheville, 2005
SPECIALIZATION
2013 - Present: Ongoing mentorship and consultation in psychodynamic theory and practice: examining character structure, ethics of practice, and social justice in psychotherapy with Dr. K. Alexandra Onno, PhD.
2022 - Present: Object Relations trainings through The Center for Object Relations in Seattle.
2015: Mindful Self-compassion Training Intensive with Dr.’s Christopher Germer, PhD, and Kristin Neff, PhD.
2014 - Present: Trainings in the use of evidence-based practices for the assessment and treatment of trauma, anxiety, and anxiety related disorders (CBT, I-CBT, and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Counseling Association & the Counselors for Social Justice
Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study, Seattle
Center for Object Relations, Seattle
Washington Mental Health Counselor’s Association
American Mental Health Counselor’s Association
“Mary Anne exhibits a tremendous degree of compassion for those who have experienced trauma. She gives permission for individuals to feel their emotions and to accept them. Mary Anne then has a variety of empowering therapeutic options for clients to use to help bring a bit more grace into their lives. ”