Lisa Koehler

Most of the clients I work with struggle with chronic anxiety. Utilizing research-based interventions, such as CBT, I have success working with my clients to reduce their anxiety symptoms. I like to use the analogy of a car radio. When anxiety is high, it's like the car radio volume is up way too high - it's hard to think or do anything. With treatment, the volume is a low hum. It may still be there, but it doesn't get in the way and you can live your life.

Chronic pain can have an overwhelming impact on the individual as well as their family and friends. The mental health component of pain management is critical to helping improve pain levels and in healing. I use several approaches to helping decrease pain including, mindfulness, psychoeducation, stress management, DBT, and CBT.

My own experience of infertility and pregnancy loss has helped me to provide an understanding of what my clients are going through that has been invaluable in treatment. No, you don't always have to have the same experiences as your therapist for a therapist to be effective, but infertility and pregnancy loss make you feel alone and separate from others, so having a treatment provider that has been there and really knows how you feel can create a strong therapeutic relationship.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a widely researched, time-limited psychotherapeutic approach that has been shown to be effective across a number of mental and behavioral conditions. CBT involves a structured approach that focuses on the relationships among cognitions (or thoughts), emotions (or feelings), and behaviors. Treatments based on cognitive behavioral theory have been successfully applied to the management of chronic pain, anxiety, and depression. Change is possible!

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and which helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems. In the most basic sense, SFBT is a hopeful, future-oriented treatment for motivating, achieving, and sustaining desired behavioral change. I tend to be a very positive person so SFBT is my jam!

There are specific skills and attitudes that can be taught rapidly to an individual or a couple. Waiting to make changes in a relationship has been shown by research to increase the possibility of divorce or a separation. Counseling can bring you hope. I assess and customize skills and attitudes for you that have been shown to build relationships. My passion is counseling individuals and couples who want joy, contentment, and connection in their relationships. Let's do this!

Perhaps you feel stuck in your relationship, or you feel bored, or you feel like your partner has changed to the point that you don’t recognize him or her. Don’t give up! My work is so gratifying because I have seen couples go through the worst and come out closer than ever. I usually credit that rebound with two things: 1. An openness and willingness to change, and 2. Making a commitment to carve out the time to reconnect. Both of those are where couples counseling comes in!