Latoya Gassaway-White

Working with parents who have a common goal of the best interest of their child is very rewarding. Sometimes it is hard working with another party, that one may no longer get along with, but coming together for the greater good is worth it. I think its important to try to get along and to try to figure things out as a one unit in order to be strong and supportive for all children that may be involved.

Depression is one of the most common mental health issues, so for starters, one should know, you are not alone. Feeling low, fatigue, eating too much or too little are possible symptoms that something is wrong and working with me as your therapist, can be the first steps in trying to overcome the negative feelings in order to achieve and be succesful in positive thoughts.

Families can go through difficult times as they evolve. My job as a therapist can be to help the family communicate with one another and to support one another in their time of need. Having healthy and safe boundaries is an important aspect in a family system and learning coping skills and how to work as an individual but within the family system can make all of the difference.

For the past six years, I have been using a CBT orientation approach with most of my clients that suffer from anxiety, depression, addictions and family conflicts. This is a psycho-social approach that reduces symptoms by integrating your thoughts, feelings and actions from negative aspects to more appropriate and positive ones.

This therapeutic approach is great for short term therapy in order to foucs on the problem and solutions instead of the why are we here or how did we get here aspect. I specifically use this type of treatment for clients that need a faster approach and for whatever reason, they can't go back into past memories.

Working individually can only get one so far if their family and sense of community is an important factor to the client. Working the client and their family as one unit is goal of family therapy. This involves a lot of communication, healthy boundaries and the will and desire to work together as one.