Adriana Espinoza LCSW

Certified as a suicide bereavement counselor, I have significant supportive training dealing with loss, including loss pertaining to suicide. I also have experience working with hospice families and supporting individuals receiving end of life care, as well as their families in changing roles, anticipation of loss and where to go when their loved one (person or animal) has passed on.

I occasionally take couples but support individuals who find themselves struggling in their marriage. Feeling like they're not heard or like they're always defending themselves. Marriage counseling is so important for those who need support in communicating but an hour a week leaves a lot to disseminate and that is where I feel my specialty is. Helping one party understand their role in dynamics and explore of their specific situations and actions lead to certain results.

One of the universal themes I have explored and supported clients in throughout my career. Older adults struggling with being cut off from adult children or grandchildren to divorcing/divorced parents finding a way to respect boundaries and coparent in a healthy manner while acknowledging and grieving the loss of control and autonomy that comes with divorce, to even family members struggling to sustain boundaries around toxic family members with a history of abuse or substance use.

There are two paths forward for trauma. One may be sitting and going back into your past- while this is heavy and doesn't need to be a play by play retraumatization, it does require reflection on how abuse creates patterns of behavior. It requires acknowledging how it has shaped you and working to identify how it continues to influence your responses. The other is acknowledging the events and allowing yourself to grief but also stop the cycle by changing your behavior.

I focus on breaking things down CBT style and creating small, manageable goals to work towards. Sometimes they're big 1 year or 5 year plans. Sometimes the goal is simply giving oneself credit for the things they're accomplishing and renewing the sense of encouragement.

I am a big literary fan and appreciate all art provides us! I pull from books, poetry and open to any influence to explore the wonderful connection art gives us. Sometimes i challenge you to wrote a poem or read a passage and interpret what it means to you and we discuss your perspective. Art is healing and promotes an intimate release that sometimes we don't have the ability to speak out loud.