Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people become more psychologically adaptable. ACT encourages you to be more fully in the present. Accepting your deep emotions, traumas, or negative coping mechanisms is key in this therapeutic approach.
ACT maintains that to adapt and grow, a person must fully accept themselves as they are. Therapists practicing ACT believe that suppressing or ignoring painful emotions or experiences is counter-productive to growth and change.
You must investigate your current patterns of thinking to change. After examining these patterns, you can better understand the way your thinking impacts you. This acceptance of your patterns and habits helps you change your behaviors.
Trying to stop ways of thinking can be detrimental to ACT. Your therapist will help you understand how and why you think a certain way. Your ACT therapist will encourage you to accept yourself within a given moment. This acceptance is ultimately the catalyst for change.
After fostering the acceptance of the present moment, with all its thoughts, beliefs, and experiences, your ACT therapist will encourage you to develop a new, more compassionate relationship with your experience.
Individuals experiencing a wide range of psychological issues can benefit from ACT because it emphasizes their unique relationship with their problems.
In today's world we are faced with many troubles and hard times. It can be difficult coping, causing one to need someone to talk to about their stresses and hardships. We at Counseling On The Hill (COTH) understand the needs of people in today's society. We care and understand all the tribulations that are difficult to cope with that befall us all. We are here to help!!! We have License...
My specialization includes assisting adults experiencing challenges of all types: be that physical, mental, psychiatric, developmental, cognitive, intellectual, chronic illness, etc. This may be a personal or indirect experience currently affecting you. We will work together to reflect on and overcome barriers in an empathetic and nurturing environment. We will take the time to grieve any loss,...
At some point in everyone’s life, we all start to need a little help. You may be at a place where you are questioning your next move and unsure of therapy Deciding to seek counseling is no small feat. It is likely the hardest part of the process, but I assure you, it is a step in the right direction for whatever you may be going through. Whether it is depression, anxiety, irritability, anger,...
ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS. I have specialized in working with clients to help them gain greater insight into how their thoughts and behaviors impact not only themselves, but other people in their lives. I believe that the therapeutic relationship can be used as a model for building on relationships with those that matter most to us, outside of the office. I believe that by understanding our past...
YOU MADE IT! Let's change your LIFE! YOU ARE a badass in your 20s or 30s and you *mostly* have your life together, but something is holding you back. You work hard on your life goals, but have also been dealing with anxiety, low self-esteem, and some negative self-talk. Maybe you look at social media and immediately feel you're not doing enough with your life (been there) - or maybe your...
Are you feeling overwhelmed by obsessive, unwanted thoughts and anxiety? Maybe you're experiencing concerns about harm, a past event, contamination, or being with the wrong partner. Do you feel trapped in a cycle of repetitive mental rehearsing, checking, cleaning, reassurance-seeking, or avoidance behaviors in an attempt to get relief? OCD is a frequently misunderstood disorder that can presen...
As a psychotherapist, I work with clients to validate their struggles, help them understand past patterns and motivations, derive new insights, and ultimately lead to commitment-driven change. I believe all people understand their needs and wants inherently, and therapy can serve as the conduit to better understand and elicit the best approach for each individual, allowing them to advocate for ...
Heather O’Donnell is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Pennsylvania. She has over 10 years of experience working with those struggling with depression, anxiety, mood disorders, personality disorders, trauma, grief and loss, and other serious mental health conditions. Heather also has worked effectively with foster and birth parents, adoptive parents, children, and adolescents...
Being a human is hard, and for most of us, no one has taught us how to navigate through the messiness of life. At some point in our lives, we might find ourselves lost and stuck. It takes a lot of courage to reflect inwards and work on ourselves. It's my honor to listen, witness, and support you through your struggles and successes. I am committed to understanding your story in the full context...
I support individuals working through life transitions, relationship struggles, grief and loss, depression and anxiety, and those who are working to gain a better sense of themselves and their life purpose. If you are seeking to have a more peace in your day to day life, to better manage your emotional experience, and to relate to yourself and others with more understanding I will help you reac...
I value every encounter with an individual. I am grateful to be in a field, as a Therapist, where I can enjoy divine connections daily - thanks to the incredible courage of people. Specifically, thanks to a “yes” to the journey of growth, healing, and one's readiness to get "unstuck." Although I believe that the therapy office is a place where much of an individual’s healing and recovery from l...
Do you want to experience a higher level of living but don't quite know how to get there? You're already doing great, but you're ready to do even better. Maybe you're craving a better relationship with yourself or with your partner. Maybe it's a better career you want or better friends or better sex. Congratulations- you're in the right place. Counseling is no longer just for those with severe...
TRAUMA: A threatening experience that is too much, too fast. When we are stressed out or overwhelmed and our instinctual survival responses (such as fight, flight & freeze) are blocked, so we don’t get to complete our body’s survival responses... then trauma occurs and symptoms emerge. As a result, the body continues to respond as if it is under threat. More than thoughts and behaviors – proble...
Binaries can be stifling. Suffocating. Living in a world with prescribed ideals, roles, presentations and expectations is exhausting, terrifying and lonely. Maybe you’ve always known that something about you doesn’t quite fit the within the strict confines and regulations of gender and sexuality in our society. Maybe you’re just now starting to question things, or feeling confused and overwhelm...
The life we live and the life we want do not always match up. Funny enough, life some times gets in the way of the life we want. I believe that we can live an authentic life with meaningful connections that makes suffering through hard stuff worth it. A person is more than their problems, thoughts, and feelings. I like to work with individuals on figuring out what kind of life they want, and ho...
