Kayla Estenson Williams (she/her)

Compassion Fatigue can impact those who work in healing professions (such as therapists, nurses, teachers, etc.), caregivers to others who struggle with physical or emotional health, as well as those who have a pattern of taking on the role of caregiver in their relationships. Together we can explore your experience, establish effective support and self-care, and implement effective boundaries to prevent you from career or relational burn-out.

I specialize in transitions of early-adulthood. Common transitions in this phase of life include college/graduate school, career exploration, and early family transitions (such as building significant relationships, engagement, marriage, family planning, infertility and loss, pregnancy, and parenthood). I enjoy working with people at this phase of life to explore their personal values and goals and find authentic and balanced ways to work towards those goals.

Attachment concerns and relational trauma impact most people today in one way or another. These concerns can often impact future relationships in a number of ways, including: difficulty challenging roles or patterns from previous relationships, difficulty trusting, and difficulty asserting relationship wants and needs. I view the therapeutic relationship as a healthy space to process through these experiences and identify authentic ways to relate with others.

My background in Yoga provides me with a variety of techniques for mindfulness/meditation and somatic approaches. I believe strengthening the mind-body connection allows us access to our own tools to honor and regulate our emotions. I will bring practices of mindfulness as well as simple regulating movement when beneficial in session as well as can provide recommendations for a home practice that fosters your individual self-soothing and regulation.

Much of my approach is based in ACT. ACT helps us to honor and accept our experiences, increase psychological flexibility, explore our personal values and goals, and increase authentic action towards those values and goals. We will use ACT in therapy to reduce rigid self-expectations and increase more compassionate ways to be in your experience and work towards what is truly important to you.

All of the work that I do is trauma-focused. Whether you are struggling with a specific traumatic event, or have numerous instances of attachment based trauma (such as chronic invalidation), we can navigate these experiences through trauma based approaches. With me, these involve somatic approaches to nurture the nervous system, processing techniques for self-exploration, strategies from Post Induction Therapy to foster self-worth, and a human-first acceptance-based approach.

Anxiety can manifest itself in a number of ways. For many of the clients that I work with, anxiety has become a way of navigating an uncertain world. Anxiety can include the common symptoms of excessive worry and rumination, and also can include people-pleasing behaviors, overly high and rigid self-expectations, and self-doubt. I specialize in anxiety that manifests from attachment-based trauma and an uncertain sense of self.

I work with those experiencing infertility, pregnancy, as well as postpartum. I have personal experience with infertility as well as the challenges in pregnancy and postpartum, and so I am passionate about supporting those going through these transitions. I especially love working through the trauma that can be involved in these experiences as well as identity development during these times.