Couples Counseling Therapists in 97213

I am Dr. Kathy Marshack, psychologist and author. My credentials go back decades including a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Doctorate in Psychology. I've trained with the best too. But as valuable as my education, training and experience are, I also know that each one of you is as unique and special as your fingerprints. I want to help you, so I'm offering Online Therapy for Oregon and Washington residents and Online Education appointments for various topics. Check my clinical website to make an appointment with me: www.kmarshack.com. I am not currrently taking new clinical clients at this time.

"When you come into therapy it is a time to expand the sense of yourself. Our job is to get familiar with the values that have helped you get through difficult situations and use them now. You may be a combat veteran, mental health or law enforcement worker having family or relationship problems. You need clear and practical strategies for replacing automatic reactions with mindful responses. Feeling understood by another human being is useful for flexible problem solving and clarifying your values. The majority of my experience is working with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD will definitely get better with knowledgeable treatment."

Whether this is your first time seeking therapy or you are coming back to the work, finding a therapist you connect with is key. When you feel the right fit, it is amazing what is possible on the healing journey. Problems start to feel more manageable and creativity opens up, allowing you to lean in and work toward the change you want to see happen. I deeply value both humor and seriousness to the therapeutic relationship. I believe that we are all wired to move toward health; sometimes we need help and guidance along the way to clear out past trauma, anxiety, relationship problems, depression.

If you're seeking an empowering and transformative experience of therapy, I'd love to support you. I have built my practice to focus on all things relationships: I work especially well with relational trauma, breaches of trust, repairing severed relationships, communication, non-normative relationships, as well as family & reproductive support. I am approachable and bring a solid, vigorous presence to our encounters - you will not feel adrift in our sessions. My style is engaged, directive, and sometimes humorous, and always tender and reverent of all of who you are.

Let's work together to help you thrive. Maybe your relationships are unsatisfying, you feel depressed or anxious, or you feel like you don't have much purpose. It would be an honor to help you. I engage with clients to create meaning in their lives, to improve their partnerships and friendships, and to improve their sense of connection with themselves, with others, and with the universe. It would be a privilege of offering understanding and support to you and to explore how healing trauma, creating community, deepening mindfulness, and finding peace can revolutionize your wellbeing. I work with individuals and couples.

Growing up in a dysfunctional family, being in a toxic or abusive relationship, or experiencing the horrors of a traumatic event can set you on a collision course with daily triggers to anger, sadness, overwhelm, panic, or dissociation. Maybe you notice your reactions in your relationships are causing harm, and you regularly experience the dreaded “shame spiral.” You minimize your pain, or others regularly do. If this is you, I’m glad you’re here. Long-term healing is possible. Even if only a small part of you hopes for change, I'm confident it's enough to start the journey toward a peaceful and thriving life.

Trauma comes in many forms. It can be from childhood abuse, car accidents, toxic work environment, toxic relationship, racial injustice, war, rape, bullying, natural and manmade disasters like wildfires and earthquakes. You may have the symptoms of PTSD but not have explicit memories of the traumatizing experience. EMDR walks you through a series of steps to help decrease the symptoms of PTSD (nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, insomnia, avoidance and hopelessness about the future). It also helps to map out a plan to deal with future triggers and gives a renewed and positive belief system about the self. I offer a free consultation.

My approach is genuine, warm, relational, and grounded in attachment, humanistic, holistic, and existential theories. I honor the connection of mind, body, heart, and spirit, and I incorporate mindfulness and somatic-based interventions to bring greater awareness to one’s whole being. I aim to provide a safe and supportive environment where you will know and feel that you are accepted just as you are. I will follow your lead, while remaining curious, engaged, and honest in what I notice. I invite you to stay open to new directions, yet grounded in the present moment, as you access your own wisdom and gain new insight and awareness.

Therapy can be a compassionate space for insight, personal development, and healing. Each one of us has our own unique history and growth process. My goal is to support your overall mental, emotional, and relational health. I work with a wide range of life experiences including anxiety, self-harming, depression, trauma, and grief. I also specialize in the following experiences: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); trauma and PTSD including dissociation, disembodiment, panic, and fear; and unhealthy relationship patterns and coping mechanisms. Together, we work on moving forward to meet your personal needs and therapeutic goals.

The world we live in does not set us up to intuitively connect with ourselves. The demands of productivity can erode our most important relationship: the one we cultivate with ourselves. Maybe you've arrived face-to-face with a new or unfamiliar part of yourself. Perhaps you’re feeling stuck, lonely, anxious, depressed, unworthy, or not (fill in the blank) enough. You might be someone seeking support in navigating relational difficulties, past or present. Wherever you’ve found yourself, it can help having someone beside you as you begin to make sense of the push and pull of life's tides.

I am a licensed Psychologist with 17 years of experience treating adults with a variety of emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal difficulties. Treatment I offer focuses on helping people better understand themselves and their emotional patterns, while learning adaptive and constructive ways of coping. In therapy, I develop an interpersonally warm, honest, and collaborative relationship to work toward my patients' goals and help them improve their functioning and life satisfaction. My office is conveniently located in Portland's Laurelhurst neighborhood and numerous free, on-street parking options.

We help new parents, young children, and teens to create healthier relationships and work together to navigate family conflict, life stressors, and adjustment to change. Do your child's emotions and outbursts seem out of control and too much to handle? Does your teen seem anxious, depressed, or withdrawn? Are you and your partner arguing constantly about parenting? Feeling sad and hopeless, or not bonding with your baby or child like you thought you would? We can help.

I view therapy as a collaborative, unfolding process that considers clients holistically. I draw from feminist and somatic approaches, using IFS to help you reconnect with your centered-self, those around you, and broader structures of support and thriving. You can expect a safe and nonjudgmental space - I strive to incorporate anti-oppressive frameworks into my practice, attending to your social and cultural context. I believe that many challenges are related to structural violence and that we hold this trauma in our bodies. I enjoy helping clients tune into their embodied experience to release pain and find understanding.

Life's difficulties provide us with an opportunity for healing and personal growth. My counseling practice helps people take advantage of these opportunities by encouraging self-knowledge and understanding. Whether you are struggling with new, unexpected pain or you want to work on a long-standing issue, I can provide you with the professional guidance to help you through grief and loss, anxiety and worry, depression, destructive anger patterns, addictive behaviors, relationship problems, family of origin issues, childhood sexual abuse, sexual identity issues, recovery from harmful religious indoctrination, and spiritual struggles.

Life and relationships are full of growth opportunities for all of us. I work in collaboration with clients to increase connection and awareness of core values so they can make lasting change. My style is positive, warm and direct. For those working to find increased joy and stability within themselves and their relationships, we can explore together the areas that feel stuck and ways to increase functioning and open up more choice.

Welcome. You are ready for change. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. You want something different or know something more is possible. Whether related to body, mind, spirit, or relationship struggles, I am honored to support you in your journey. In my work, I collaborate with each client to foster a space in which healing, growth, and understanding can support lasting change. These internal changes often translate into a life full of meaning and purpose.

We work to create new awareness, new knowledge and new possibilities. You can have an empowered family and a happy state of mind through therapy. I work with individuals and families to build harmony and health in their relationships. I specialize in sex therapy and am an effective life coach. I approach each person and family with attention to mental and physical health, with consideration to relational, social and spiritual influences.

I believe the role of a therapist is to be more than a reflective and empathetic companion in the client’s journey and must also incorporate directive approaches in order to alternate between being a companion and being a leader on that journey. Inherent in this belief is that clients are coming to therapy because they want something different than what they currently have. This can be as simple as a new perspective on a past or current struggle or as complex as a new skill set for managing and overcoming emotional, behavioral, cognitive, relational, or somatic patterns that have arisen in response to emotional distress.

I specialize in individual and couples therapy for concerns such as anxiety, relational trauma and family of origin issues, self-esteem, and depression, and I offer an emotion-focused approach.