Nicola Gosen

I have a passion for counseling individual adults, teens and children who are struggling with anxiety, academic problems, depression, low self-esteem, and feeling creatively stuck. My goal is to offer a safe space for my clients to explore their life issues and find effective coping strategies. With children I usually use a variety of play therapy techniques to help them process difficult experiences or learn socially appropriate behavior. With adults we talk and brainstorm together to find creative solutions as well as tackling the source of the problem. After teaching in elementary schools, I first started working in the field of counseling in 1990 under the mentorship of a psychologist in London, UK. To become formally licensed I moved to California where I graduated in 2003 from Antioch University Santa Barbara. I opened a private practice in Ojai, CA, and then in Bellingham, WA.

I believe everyone should have access to affordable mental health care and I therefore accept clients through Open Path Collective at $50 per session, as well as being a provider for some insurance companies and doing EAP work. My self-pay clients help me support those who can afford less, and I am grateful for them. I consider myself a humanist, informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. I respect and affirm the dignity of each human being, and value social and planetary responsibility. If your religious views are different from mine, I won't try to convert you!