“In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.” – Thomas Merton
Welcome!
Being a human in a body is messy, especially in a culture that values certain bodies over others. We all want to feel loved, valued, worthy, and like we matter, but if you’re struggling with body image issues, disordered eating, and body shame, this can feel like a long way off. Add in the extra messiness of abuse in your family or intimate relationships and you have a recipe for despair and loneliness. Feelings of unworthiness have a way of spreading, intensifying even as you struggle to release yourself. Fear, shame, anxiety and an unrelenting inner critic can take over, binding you to repetitive self-harming patterns that show up over and over. It’s exhausting!
l would like to offer you hope for freedom in the body and liberation of the mind and spirit.
My practice is:
- A refuge for people ready to reclaim their bodies, and learn to love themselves and other people better
- A safe place to explore what’s hurt you, get un-stuck, and find yourself again
- A way to make meaning of your suffering, and a transformative process that can transmute your pain into purpose, connection, and deep peace, no matter what the circumstances.
- A community in which to heal and grow that can mirror you, hold you, celebrate with you, call you on your stuff, and love you through the hard things.
- An opportunity to consider what matters most to you, and learn how to live into it.
- Liberation and aliveness. Your struggle with food and the body does not have to define your life. You can have an expansive, creative, connected, and embodied life – even in a crazy, collapsing culture.
How do we do this?
Our deepest wounds happen in relationship, and brain science shows that we need to heal them in relationship, too! I offer a unique and cutting edge combination of individual and group counseling, leveraging the power of community to support a comprehensive path to a rich, insightful, connected and empowered life. This goes beyond just personal meaning-making. When we love ourselves well, we can offer that love to others. This is the very thing our culture needs right now, and it starts in small groups. We can only change the big systems by changing the small systems within them. You are needed, as your highest expression of self.
I have many years of experience treating body image issues, eating disorders, binge eating disorder, trauma therapy, and counseling for complex PTSD (C-PTSD, which is just fancy language for relational trauma/abuse). My favorite modalities are Jungian Depth Psychotherapy, ACT Therapy, Psychoanalytic Group Therapy, and Psychodrama. I love dreamwork, active imagination, art therapy, mindfulness/meditation, and somatic work. Ask me more about what these are and how I integrate them!
Mostly, I care deeply about my clients, and see you as a full human being. My job is to help you rise up, liberate yourself through love, and bring your love to a world that is sorely in need of it. I will treat you like the spark of the divine that you are. I will tell you the things, but I will tell you with compassion and an unshakable belief in your ability to choose for yourself a life you love.
This is not your run-of-the-mill counseling. It is soul-to-soul work.
Let’s get started! Take a look around my website, and reach out today!
Click here to schedule an initial consultation.
I look forward to connecting with you!
Rachel Smith, MA, LPC, NCC, CAS
