About Therapy

Here’s the problem with therapy.

Therapy should never make you feel MORE broken and defective. Sadly, too many people who seek therapy walk away from it feeling worse, if not wholly unchanged, and regretting the money they spent.

There’s an unfortunate ideology in modern mental health culture that if we’ve experienced any trauma, we’re irreparably damaged and too vulnerable to engage in regular social, interpersonal, and professional activities. 

You’ll see this too in mainstream pop psychology missives: We should barricade ourselves from every trigger (lest we damage our fragile selves even further!). We must accept that we’re never going to be as okay or as healthy as those rare exceptional people who haven’t experienced any trauma and have hundreds of happy Instagram photos to prove it.

Wrong! This could not be farther from the truth. For starters, most people have experienced some form of trauma, and they become stronger because of it (go ahead and look up the research on post-traumatic growth if you don’t believe me). Nor could this pervasive, disempowering infantilization be any less helpful for the scores of people who do need help with their mental and behavioral health struggles.

So, how can therapy help?

Suppose you want to feel better about yourself. In that case, the answer isn’t internalizing a long list of symptoms and diagnoses that seem to meet specific criteria, nor is it shirking away from every experience that makes you uncomfortable. 

The actual antidote to most of your suffering is healing your wounded parts by getting to know their history and the pain they contain. It is about holding space for that pain and learning skills to regulate your emotions so you can channel them into healthy, empowering, and values-based actions. 

To get better, you’ll need to reprocess awful memories, revise unhelpful beliefs about yourself, and develop your ability to make and maintain meaningful and healthy relationships. Getting comfortable with uncertainty and that dreaded grey area is also essential. And, most importantly, stop running from what you’re afraid of.

In theory, all this sounds wonderful. 

Okay, maybe it's also quite daunting. So, how in the heck would you even begin? Well, if you knew, you wouldn’t be reading this page. 

Frankly, I don’t know anyone who can DIY their psychological recovery all by themselves. That’s why I got my degree in social work and became a licensed therapist. Call me a masochist, but I love walking through the fire with people who need someone to spark the flames of their healing. 

Hi, I’m Katherine. Founder of InteGreatSelf.

I’m a sucker for ‘nerding out’ with my clients about the research and strategies I’ve had the privilege of learning across my ten years in the mental health world. And I’m adamant about sparing people from the most common mistakes that well-meaning mental health professionals can make that DON’T facilitate growth and healing.

No matter the severity (or longevity) of your symptoms, you CAN feel better provided you get the kind of care that considers you as a whole person, not just your symptoms. Research supports therapy’s effectiveness at teaching you actionable, practical skills and helping you gain insight into the roots of your challenges.

Here’s the short version.

TL;DR: to get better, you need a mental health professional who won’t feed into the belief that you’re sick, damaged, and must be over-protected to be okay. You need someone to help you stop pathologizing yourself, start doing the work of healing, and support your growth every step of the way.

Every single one of us possesses an innate capacity to heal and recover. The body and brain are designed to do this. The right interventions facilitate this natural and necessary process, while the wrong ones undermine it.

Who am I and how can I help you?

I didn’t start my career as a therapist. My first jobs were in writing and editing, mainly covering topics related to mental health – hence The Truth About Exercise Addiction, which I had the absolute joy of co-authoring with Heather Hausenblas, Ph.D.

The writing and editing were fantastic, but I felt something was missing. I saw many people not doing well, and I wanted to do something to change that – not just write about it. 

I was also highly motivated to combat the trend of over-identification with mental health labels that started becoming a problem in the early 2000s and has now, with 24/7 access to social media, absolutely gotten out of hand.

So, I became a therapist.

I received my Master of Social Work (MSW) from Fordham University in New York City so that I could be more equipped to help people manage intrusive thoughts, intense and out-of-control emotions, compulsive behaviors, and debilitating depression and anxiety. Why? Because growing up, so many people I knew (me included, for a large chunk of my life) seemed to be freaking out all the time, and I wanted to be able to do something about it.

I got my start in the mental health world, working on crisis and suicide prevention lifelines. I was fortunate to be part of Fordham University’s Evidence-Based Fellowship program, where I was taught research-backed approaches to treating severe mental illnesses. For several years, I worked with low-income adults diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since 2021, I’ve worked in a private practice treating adults grappling with anxiety, depression, insomnia, relationship issues, and compulsive overconsumption (think: food, drugs, exercise, sex, the internet). 

Through my work, I’ve seen firsthand how many people can change, regain control of their lives, and improve their mental and physical health when they let go of harmful, disempowering beliefs. Therapy helps individuals embrace discomfort to grow into the person they were meant to be.

Many excellent (and research-backed!) interventions support this inspiring process, and I’ve loved getting trained in them. I offer my clients a menu of EMDR, ACT, CBT, DBT, Mindfulness, and IFS. (I'm happy to break down this alphabet soup for you when we talk.) I don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits-all approach, so I adapt each to suit my client’s unique needs and preferences. 

Here’s what to expect when you work with me.

My primary goal in therapy is to create a safe space where clients can honestly express their thoughts and feelings without being judged. I’ve seen and heard a lot, to be honest, so please don’t worry about weirding me out. I’m probably open-minded to a fault, so feel free to fly all your freak flags, political views, and opinions without fear that I’ll tell you you’re wrong. After all, I’m a therapist, not a moral arbiter or the decency police.

From here, we’ll look at where you need the most help: that is, the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, nightmares, fears, anxieties, and dread you carry within you. This stuff gets in your way whenever you start to do well for a bit. That is the crap that keeps holding you back, pulling you down, and keeping you from progressing toward the dreams, hopes, and goals you wish you dared to reach for.

We’re going to get to know these parts of you well. How old are they? What do they look and feel like? Most importantly, what do they need you to know, and what do you need to tell them to dial down their ferocity? Finding answers to these questions is where the real work begins. 

We’ll reprocess traumatic memories fueling your current problems, replace unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, and practice a host of skills to improve your interpersonal interactions, emotion regulation, and tolerance of uncertainty or discomfort. Prepare to learn how to relate to yourself in a kinder, more effective, and helpful way, and brace yourself to touch into what calmness feels like again.

I could go on here, but it’s probably best to set up a call if you’re still reading.

Contact me if you want to feel more empowered and in control of your life rather than victimized and helpless. 

We’ll talk about what you’re up against, where your challenges lie, your goals, and how we can work together to get you back to the person you were meant to be and can become.