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​A Place to Be Recognized

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Some of us learned early that belonging wasn't a given. Maybe you grew up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional family. Maybe home was unpredictable, emotionally complicated, or simply wasn't a place where you felt fully known. Maybe you became the responsible one, the wild one, the caretaker, the achiever, the outsider, the one who kept the peace, or the one who learned to take care of yourself.

Others find themselves here because life has changed. A relationship has begun or ended. You've become a parent. Someone has died. Your health has changed. You've entered recovery. Something you once depended upon no longer works, or you've simply reached a point where the person you have been no longer quite fits the life you are living.

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Whatever your story, we all find ways to adapt to the lives we are given. We become who we need to become to find safety, connection, belonging, or simply a way through. Those adaptations are often intelligent and necessary. They may serve us for years. Until they don't.

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Eventually, toughness can become exhausting. Independence can become lonely. Vigilance can make it difficult to rest. Caring for everyone else can leave little room for yourself. Old ways of escaping may stop working. We may feel increasingly disconnected from our bodies, our relationships, and our own needs. Sometimes we simply look around at the lives we've built and realize we aren't entirely sure where we are in them anymore.

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At Heartwood, we believe something important happens when we are deeply recognized by another person. When we no longer have to impress, perform, hide the messy parts of ourselves, or become someone different in order to belong, we can begin to meet ourselves with greater honesty, curiosity, and compassion. That belief is at the heart of how we practice therapy.

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Our work is relational, experiential, embodied, and contemplative. Together, we slow down and become curious about what has happened, how you learned to adapt, what those ways of being have protected, and what you may no longer need to carry. We pay attention not only to the stories you tell about your life, but also to the feelings, sensations, relationships, and parts of yourself that may be harder to put into words.

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Through this process, habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and relating become clearer. And with greater awareness comes greater choice. We can begin to experience more of ourselves, become more comfortable with the messiness and discomfort inherent in being human, and develop deeper and more nourishing relationships with ourselves and the people we love.

Our work draws from relational and Gestalt psychotherapy, modern psychoanalysis, attachment theory, trauma informed and body based approaches, contemplative psychology, mindfulness, and nervous system awareness.

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But underneath all of those approaches is something much simpler. We believe people change through relationships in which they feel safe enough to be honest, respected enough to remain themselves, and challenged and supported enough to keep growing.

You don't need to clean yourself up before you come here. You don't need to have the right language for what happened, and you don't need to become someone else.

We begin with who you are and go from there.

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Who We Work With

We work with people who have been shaped by complicated families, relationships, addiction, loss, adversity, and major life transitions, and who find that the ways they learned to adapt are no longer allowing them to live and relate in the ways they want.

Many of the people we work with grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional families, learned early to care for others, became fiercely independent, struggled to feel that they belonged, or learned to disconnect from their own feelings and needs in order to maintain relationships and make their way through difficult circumstances.

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Others come to us during periods when life itself has disrupted who they thought they were. Parenthood, grief, illness, recovery, the beginning or ending of a relationship, burnout, or simply reaching a point where an old way of living no longer fits can bring us face to face with ourselves in unexpected ways.

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We work especially well with people who are ready to understand not only what they are struggling with, but how they came to be who they are. Our work helps people develop a deeper relationship with themselves, their bodies, their histories, and the patterns that have shaped their lives so they can experience greater choice, connection, belonging, and autonimy in how they move forward.

At the center of our work is a simple belief: you do not need to become someone else in order to heal. Therapy can be a place where you are deeply recognized, where all of who you are is welcome, and where greater awareness creates the possibility of living differently.

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