We will sit with the messiness together.
My Approach
Therapy is a creative process where presence, careful listening, and openness to ourselves generates healing. Therapeutic conversation allows you to experiment with different ways of seeing yourself and being in the world.
I will create a gentle environment for you to practice expressing and feeling your feelings, to find language that fits your experience, and to bring forward your most authentic self. In therapy, we will find ways to give voice to parts of yourself that may not yet be able to speak. We feel and speak to and from our bodies. We will attend to tension, numbness, softening, heaviness and other sensations as they arise.
Human beings need connection to thrive. Failure to connect can be a source of great pain and enduring wounds. When our relationships with our families, partner(s), coworkers, or friends are strained, our relationship to ourselves suffers. Making a genuine connection where you are met and accepted as you are can be incredibly healing. As a relational therapist, I will talk with you about our client-therapist relationship in session to explore and deepen your understanding of how you relate to others and to intimacy. We will sit with the messiness together.
My job is to be a witness to your experience, recognize what you are communicating, and hold parts of yourself and your history that may be difficult to confront on your own. I aim to show up in the therapy room as my whole self: honest, playful, and deeply caring.
Rachel Patrick, MA, LMHC
I graduated with a Master of Arts in Psychology from Seattle University where I studied Existential-Phenomenological Psychology, which focuses on the meaning we make through our experiences. I have worked in the public and nonprofit sectors for over a decade, focusing primarily on working in HIV care and prevention, and with people experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders. Before starting my own therapy practice, I worked at a community mental health agency serving adults as a mental health and substance use counselor.
My practice is grounded in relational, humanistic, body-centered and existential therapies. I am queer, sex-positive, trans-affirming, and trauma-informed. My clinical work is also influenced by my interest in film, music, visual art, and all forms of storytelling.
I am especially drawn to working with people who found themselves in the role of caretaker as children; such as adult children of parents who struggled with mental health issues, substance use, physical illness, or generational trauma.