Firefly Counseling

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  • Home
  • Meet Katie
  • Approach
  • Contact
  • Become a Client
  • Forms
  • Current Clients

APPROACH

Scope of Practice

I specialize in spiritual wellness and sexual empowerment. 

What is spiritual wellness? 
Feeling connected to something larger than yourself, and by something I mean anything at all. For some, this is God, or Allah, or Jesus, or Mother Nature, or, simply, Higher Power. For others, this is human connection, or connection to the larger world around us, or even creativity. I do NOT offer or prescribe any religious affiliation for clients. I only help them consider questions of faith and spirituality in order to understand their own belief system and how to access it. I understand nondenominational faith as a healing tool for all sorts of emotional quandaries. 

What is sexual empowerment? 
A sexually empowered person is connected to their sexual self. That means they understand their needs, wants, and desires without shame or blame, and can communicate them to a partner. They can be rejected without taking it personally, and can respect the physical and sexual boundaries of others, even when they differ from their own. In therapy, sexual empowerment work means looking at the forces that hold us back from stepping fully into ourselves, most importantly shame and body dissatisfaction,  in order to explore what truly activates desire, what individual sexual needs are, and how to satisfy them in safe, healthy, and hopefully exciting ways. Sexual empowerment isn't just about sex - it is about feeling at home in your body. 

Other specialty areas: 
  • Couples counseling
  • Family relationship work
  • Grief and loss
  • Anxiety 
  • Life transitions
  • Parenting
  • Sexual and gender identity exploration 
  • Complex developmental trauma
  • Self-harm 

I am a social worker by education, license, and experience in the field. To me, this means that I seek to understand my clients in the greater context of their lives, how their experiences, relationships, and the systems around them impact how they move through the world. 

Trainings & Certifications

ARC: Attachment, Regulation, and Competency 
TF-CBT: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 
​CGT: Childhood Traumatic Grief 
​CAMS: Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality 

Influences

The following are just a few sources of inspiration to me in my work, to give you a sense of who I am as a therapist and what I bring to the therapeutic relationship: 
  • Developing insight and healing through storytelling (narrative therapy) 
    • www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/09/adam-phillips-paul-holdengraber-interview 
  • Mindfulness / meditation - the practice of being present
    • www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/06/alan-watts-wisdom-of-insecurity-1/
  • Interest in creative, soulful living
    • brenebrown.com/books/
    • www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/
    • www.brainpickings.org/2016/10/12/mary-oliver-upstream-creativity-power-time/
  • Trusting and loving your body
    • https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/podcasts/listen-to-dear-sugars-trust-your-body-with-hilary-kinavey-dana-sturtevant.html
    Mary Oliver
    • maryoliver.beacon.org/2014/08/blue-horses/
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