I have written this to introduce you to myself, provide some clarity on who I am and how I provide therapy, and help you know what to expect when working with me. One therapist is not the same as another. Therapists have different levels of education, experience, interests, personalities and have experienced different levels of personal work and growth in their own lives. As a client, you will find that therapy with one therapist will be very different than therapy with another.
I tend to be a fairly laid back person. I am intuitive and spiritual in my approach with clients. I like to create a meditative environment where my clients can be reflective and self-aware. I listen carefully with an open mind, reflect back honestly what I hear, try to be a sounding board and thought partner, stand behind your goals when possible, and stay constructive and practical. I will share what I know about treatment and current research in your topic of concern.
I am a naturally curious person and I access my own intuition and I call on the intuition of my clients in session. I am good at acknowledging and validating others experiences and help client's feel seen and heard. I am a naturally quiet person, so if I allow silence in the session please know I am not "judging you" but giving space for the right words to come. I do not tell my clients what decisions to make in their lives. I believe your life, your lessons, your victories, your failures and all the consequences of your choices are uniquely yours and my job is simply to help you navigate them and integrate them into your consciousness.
As I have spent the last 17 years working as a therapist in the smaller center of Lloydminster, I have become a "generalist" in my approach. Meaning that I am accustomed to seeing people with a wide variety of challenges and I have gathered a large network of therapeutic strategies in many modalities to address the challenges of my clients.
What is distinct about me as a therapist is that I have expanded my training and practice into 4 areas: psychology, relationship therapy, energy healing, and spirituality. I have degrees and graduate degrees in psychology, marriage and family therapy, and theology, and have done (and continue to do) extensive continuing education in the area of energy healing.
Psychology means "the study of the soul" – psyche means soul, and logia means the study of. Psychology generally focuses on 3 aspects of the person – the physical/behavioral (what you do), the mental (what you think), and the emotional (what you feel). Spirituality ads another aspect, which is who you are at the core of your being. When I use the term spirituality I don't mean religion, I mean the consciousness that is you. Spiritual growth in this context means raising of your level of consciousness.
My graduate training in systems theory helps me to think through my clients lives and issues. I have learned how to use a more expansive thinking approach (vs linear thinking) to address issues and I enjoy teaching my clients to also use expansive thinking and become more multidimensional in their approach to life.
People ask me how many sessions would be needed. That answer depends on what you are looking for. The following is a general guide.
1-5 Sessions – To address your current situation and find a game plan/strategy to move forward in a positive way.
1-12 Sessions – To address current situation/develop strategy AND look deeper into the root causes of the issues to help resolve them at a deeper level.
I generally try to book sessions every 2-4 weeks, depending on both of our schedules.
Maintenance Sessions – These sessions can be 1/month to once or twice a year. The purpose is to check in and reflect on your current situation and state of mind to help navigate forward in a positive and conscious way. I invite clients to return to counselling anytime they feel they need a check in session or anytime something challenging comes up in their lives. Many of my clients have come to therapy on and off for many years, whenever they feel the importance of returning. Having a thought partner tends to be quite useful to help navigate forward productively.
You could think of each therapy session as an episode of a series (like a Netflix series) where each session has its own theme and content but ties together with the entire series (your life) in meaningful ways. It's my job to help you connect the various themes of the sessions together to help create greater awareness of your overall story.
I also believe that people are best served when they have a support network and I encourage my client's to try out the services of other professionals as well as my own. I can only do what I do, and there are a lot of wonderful service providers out there who offer complementary services to my own. My intention is to work with clients who are a good fit for me and I a good fit for them. My intention is to work with clients who resonate with my approach and to refer those who don't to other professionals.
What I do with clients fall into two main categories; talk therapy and trauma therapy. I often combine them in sessions to help clients gain perspective and clarity faster. I always use some form of talk therapy but I don't always use trauma therapy techniques. It depends on the goals of my clients.
Talk therapy is exactly what it sounds like, we have a conversation. Sometimes people know exactly what they want to talk about and sometimes they have no idea. Both are totally ok. Often just going with the flow of the conversation will take us deeper and deeper into topics that are relevant for your life and movement forward.
The goal of my style of therapy is first, to help you gain clarity and perspective on your current life situation and challenges. Second, to shift into principle-based living where your daily decisions and actions are based on thought through principles. Third, the broader goal is to help you raise your level of consciousness so that you approach the world a little differently, in ways that are more conducive to the experiences and goals you want. Thought, emotion and action are interconnected. As you begin to think differently you also begin to feel and act differently in your life. The more aligned your life is to your principles, the more satisfaction and enjoyment you are likely to experience.
I try to stay in a state of gratitude for every client that enters my office. I appreciate the opportunity to connect with people at deeper levels and the opportunity to support people with improving their lives.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Beattie, M.Sc., R. Psych.
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