Grace Willen (she/her)

Our earliest bonds shape how we show up in relationships—sometimes leaving us anxious, avoidant, or unsure how to get close. In therapy, we can trace these patterns back to their roots and experiment with new ways of connecting. I’ve seen how a safe, consistent therapeutic relationship can help people feel more secure, authentic, and supported in their lives.

Psychodynamic therapy explores how past experiences live on in the present—through defenses, family roles, or ways of relating that once protected you but now feel constraining. In my practice, I help bring these dynamics into awareness with curiosity and care. This process opens up choice, deepens compassion for yourself, and allows new patterns to take root.

Depth therapy invites us to look beneath the surface at the feelings, images, and patterns that guide the course of your life. My work is influenced by Jungian training, which values dreams, symbols, and imagination as pathways to growth. Rather than rushing to fix symptoms, we slow down and listen for what wants to emerge, making space for greater self-understanding and meaning.

Attachment is how we connect. Our first relationships with caregivers teach us how to love, feel safe, protect ourselves, and express our needs. These early bonds shape how we reach for closeness or guard against it. Relationship challenges in adulthood may look like avoidance, anxiety, "codependency," or pursuing unavailable others. In therapy, we bring awareness to these patterns with compassion, loosening what’s become too rigid and strengthening what’s been undernourished.

When children are loved consistently and mirrored accurately, they internalize a sense of worth that remains stable even when life wobbles. For many people, love and mirroring felt more conditional — being celebrated only when they were “good” — calm, self-sufficient, or easy to love, or absorbing mostly negative reflections.

When children are loved consistently and mirrored accurately, they internalize a sense of worth that remains stable even when life wobbles. For many people, love and mirroring felt conditional — being celebrated only when they were “good” — calm, self-sufficient, or easy to love, or absorbing mostly negative reflections. When the reflection distorts, the self adapts by managing the mirror — keeping everyone pleased, regulating others’ moods, or fading into the background at signs of tension.

Anxiety can feel like loud alarm bells - a pounding heart, racing thoughts, physical tension. Something in us is asking to be heard. What's whispering to you beneath the noise? Together, we’ll slow down, listen to what the anxiety might be pointing toward, and explore new ways of feeling safe in your own presence and in the presence of others.