About My Clients
Dr. Heckel has worked with clients on issues around trauma, depression, grief and loss, anxiety in its many manifestations (generalized anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, existential worry, etc.). She has also worked with many couples, seeing them through various life transitions and conflicts to resolution. Finally, Dr. Heckel has a specialty in substance use treatment: harm reduction psychotherapy for people who want to reduce use or use more safely without necessarily stopping altogether.
My Background and Approach
Dr. Heckel brings her years of work in hospitals and community mental health settings as both a social worker and a clinical psychologist to her practice, where she engages with warmth and compassion from the start. Having spent the first 10-15 years of her career working with clients who were active substance users, people living with HIV, the LQBTQIA+ community, and sex workers, her approach to therapy is informed by social justice theory, critical race theory, intersectional feminism, queer liberation theory, and liberation psychology. Therapy is collaborative, with clients as the experts on themselves and Dr. Heckel as the expert in mental health; together, we’re partners on the therapeutic journey to not only reduce or eliminate unwanted symptoms, but also to help you lead a more examined, fulfilling life.