Courtney Bledsoe (she/her)

Grief therapy can look different from week to week. One week you might share warm memories and another you might talk about sadness. I create space for you to express anything, even things that you may have been afraid to say. I can be with you in sorrow, empathize with your anger, and listen to your guilt. Offering you a space to rest, feel and process.

I start with an evaluation that helps us as a parent-child-therapist team create a plan for moving forward. Play will always be part sessions, but I also bring in learning new skills. I believe that parents have tremendous power and influence with their children. So, I involve parents to help their child make and sustain change outside of the office.

I craft a personalized approach by listening without judgment and creatively combining different therapies that target anxiety: CBT, DBT, ERP, parent training. They all can help irritability, worry, racing thoughts, rituals, and fear. I believe you deserve to feel brave, joyful, and more like yourself. I offer a compassionate and honest therapy approach to create long term change.

CBT is a focused, goal oriented, skills based form of treatment. The focus of CBT is identifying and changing unhelpful behaviors and patterns of thinking. CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts and behaviors influence how we feel, so if we change our thoughts and behaviors we will change how we feel. CBT emphasizes new skill development.

DBT focuses on how to tolerate uncomfortable emotions, that resisting strong emotions often increases suffering, and honors an individual’s strengths while seeking to improve their coping strategies. There are four main areas of focus in DBT: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.

ERP is an evidence based therapy that helps people confront their fears in a safe and gradual way. This allows practice tolerating uncomfortable reactions, using coping skills and gaining confidence in their ability to overcome their anxiety. This treatment confronts the idea that if something makes us anxious it should be avoided. Often an ERP session will include: building a fear ladder, planning and engaging in an exposure, and response prevention (decreasing compulsion or safety behaviors).