Our Mission Statement:
To provide equitable, diverse, informed, and honest care
to help our clients gain insight and make changes in their lives.
We incorporate psychodynamic principles, somatic experiencing, behavioral, cognitive behavioral, systems, dialectical behavioral, and sensorimotor modalities into our therapeutic approaches. We not only collaborate with each other, we collaborate with our clients to review and try a variety of options, modalities, and approaches to see what works best for you and tailor it to you. When working with us, you will always know what we are working on, why we are working on it, and how we will be accomplishing goals together.
Co-Founders Sarah Smith and David Kessler
Our Origin Story
Sarah Smith and David Kessler co-founded The Willow Center for Integrative Health, with over 15 years of combined clinical experience, in January 2021 after working together at the Center for Contextual Change. Their vision was to create a group therapy practice that is invested in training clinicians to be trauma and systems informed, neurodivergent and LGBTQ affirmative, and knowledgeable in incorporating and integrating the body and mind in therapy.
They shaped the practice to be equitable and transparent to all staff members. They facilitated an environment that encourages therapists to consult with one another so each case is seen from multiple perspectives and each client is provided with the most effective support and care possible. They also encourage their team of therapists to join in on each other’s sessions when further collaboration is clinically appropriate.
Systems Approach
In addition to psychology training, both of our founders have degrees in Sociology and prioritize seeing each client within their context. We consider the individual, societal, and environmental factors and contexts for each client. All of the people, places, and things you interact with impact you and we consider those factors in your therapeutic work. We also explore the identities you hold and the intersectionality of how your identities inform who you are. We also recognize how macro societal level systems, those that influence experiences of power, privilege, and oppression, deeply impact the experiences of every individual. We acknowledge and value that each person has their own lived experience and we want to know more about yours.
Trauma Informed
Our deep investment in learning about, researching, and understanding the impact of trauma on a neurological and societal level help us guide individuals towards multiple different pathways of recovery. We use our expertise and understanding about neurodiversity and learning styles in conjunction with Mary Jo Barrett’s Collaborative Change Model to structure and pace healthy trauma informed therapy. Stage one of therapy focuses on creating a context for change, building safety and a therapeutic alliance and assessing individual strengths and vulnerabilities. Stage two tests interventions to see if they work. Stage three consolidates the work through understanding why the interventions work and what clients learned in the process.
Health Focused
We don’t have patients, we have clients. The root word for patient, shared with patience, comes from the Latin word pati, which means suffering. Patients wait for care, our clients do not. Our goal is for our clients to be active participants in their own healing journey. We work for them. Our job is to be honest with, to build a relationship with our clients, and not just make them feel better with platitudes. We focus on health and not on illness. We work with people and see sufferings without defining them by those experiences. Clients have a humanistic drive towards health and their voice is essential in the therapeutic process.
Focus on Integration
The hallmark of integration is metacognition, the thinking about thinking. Our clients can ask us anytime what we are doing and why we are doing something. They should know why the intervention worked and why it made them feel better so they can be empowered outside of therapy.
When we experience something painful, we experience it on multiple levels. Our approach allows us to integrate the body into therapy and explore what the body needs to feel safe or calm again.
The Story of the Willow Tree
Willow trees are resilient and while they often grow in swampy, undesirable areas, they can grow almost anywhere. Their roots make pockets and divots to change their environment to better suit their needs. They can stretch towards the light, develop complex root systems to seek out the resources they need, provide habitats and shelter, shake off the weight of a rainfall, and adapt to survive almost anything.
Like willow trees, people do not always grow up, or currently live, in healthy environments. In order to create more healthy conditions, we need to know what kind of resources current roots need and assist in developing new ones to grow. In therapy, we are curious about your relationship to your roots and explore how patterns of thinking, behaviors, and emotional responses have developed overtime and how you have grown from different moments in your life. We then help you integrate each element in order to nourish your whole tree and discover what kind of tree you are. We cannot do the work without integrating your branches, your roots, and your environment into therapy.
