Stephen Oliver (He/Him)

Throughout my time as a clinician, I have found that each person I have worked with has had both their own unique struggles and difficulties and their own strengths and preferences. With this level of individuality, my approach focuses on meeting you where you are at, listening to your specific story and emotions, and coming up with a strategy and a rhythm that allows you to not only work on your goals but also increase comfortability with therapy. In sessions, my approach is to first form a safe and trusting environment and therapeutic relationship before discussing what overall goals you have for therapy. Once those goals are established, I believe in collaborating to discuss what science based and evidence backed coping skills sound realistic and helpful for you. Whether it be with initial or new challenges, we can then continue working to both process and adapt to impactful difficulties.

I believe that, while concrete and evidenced based coping skills are incredibly helpful in allowing people to make the changes that they want to see in life, the most important part of therapy is feeling heard and respected; the only thing worse than almost any situation is going through it alone. I also believe that starting therapy, as with any new experience, can potentially feel overwhelming, exciting, scary, or a combination of those emotions and more. However, in session, I believe that we can potentially use trust, concrete steps and goals, and authenticity to create an environment that feels both safe and productive.