Individual therapy for adults, teens,
couples and families
We believe that a collaborative and accepting relationship is the best way to support people as they heal. Therapists at Holding Both Counseling are united by our relational style of therapy and our authenticity, acceptance, and humor, alongside a commitment to effective treatment strategies and modalities.
We specialize in serving clients seeking support with:
shifting their relationship with food and their body.
processing and integrating trauma.
empowering neurodiversity and connecting with strengths.
caring for chronic health conditions and pain.
affirming care for Complex PTSD or Borderline Personality.
While we are able to offer skills, invitations to reflect and go deeper, honest feedback, and new perspectives, we respect that clients are the most knowledgeable about their experiences and the choices that will bring them a sense of peace.
Some of the treatment modalities we lean on are Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Radically Open DBT, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Janina Fisher’s Structural Dissociation Model), and Dynamic Emotional Integration (DEI).
trauma work
Trauma arises when experiences distort our understanding of ourselves. Trauma can make us feel out of step with the rest of the world. It can make us dislike ourselves, make relationships incredibly challenging, prompt us to seek control at any cost, or feel miserably powerless.
Childhood trauma often teaches us that we need to be responsible for the emotions of others to try to feel safe. When our emotions feel far too painful or overwhelming, we can learn to cope by blaming ourselves or others.
This distorted self perspective is like looking through a fun house mirror at ourselves — only nothing about it is fun. At Holding Both Counseling, we take a few different approaches to helping our clients heal from trauma. However, the goal is always to help our clients see themselves in the kindest light, find effective ways to regulate emotions, and feel like they belong in the world.
Our therapists use many different modalities, such as:
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP)
• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
You can expect all our therapists to bear witness to your story — holding sacred space without taking up emotional room. Whatever modality is used, you and your therapist will collaborate with the goal of finding freedom and a clear-sighted, new way to view yourself.
Eating Disorder Treatment
Whether you are struggling with an eating disorder, disordered eating, or other difficulties managing your relationship with your body and food, we can offer guidance and expertise in finding a path to recovery. Our therapists have many years of experience and have worked at the residential, day treatment, and outpatient levels of care prior to joining Holding Both Counseling. Our work is deeply informed by The Center for Body Trust.
We can help if you are trying to find freedom from:
restrictive food behaviors.
restrict and binge eating cycles.
purging through various means.
compulsive exercise.
a critical view of your body.
obsessive and exhausting thoughts about food or your body.
We help clients to understand how challenges with food and their body originated and how to build a life that is in alignment with their values and authentic self. We know eating disorder treatment can be fraught and it can be very hard to find a good fit. We welcome stories that include the way past treatments may have also caused harm, even if they were partially helpful. This work is complex and there is space for your story.
We are Health at Every Size® practitioners, use Intuitive Eating principles, take an anti-diet approach, and support Fat Liberation.
chronic pain and chronic health conditions
Living with chronic health conditions and chronic pain — because of the ongoing, often lifelong accommodations that are needed — can make navigating everyday life extraordinarily challenging. Therapists at Holding Both Counseling are able to validate these experiences, help our clients find new ways to move through the systems they are coming into contact with, and bring greater self-compassion, skills, resources, and grace to that process. We understand that systems, at best, are burdensome, and at worst, further disable us. The barriers you are facing are structural and systemic and we know that reality makes everything harder.
We help clients connect with the places where they are capable, wise, and valuable — beyond the way achievement is measured by social norms and systems. In addition, we know that living in a body that the world doesn’t accommodate is often incredibly painful and can lead us to be angry at our bodies. We help our clients move through the grief this can cause.
You will experience a sense of ease here if you:
• want to stop being angry with yourself and your body.
• need a place to feel validated, held, and welcomed for all that you have managed to create and be.
• want to strengthen your resolve or set clearer boundaries around your needs, or make a transition to a more sustainable way of living.
• are looking to strengthen your advocacy skills when navigating the medical system, employers, or accommodations in your personal life.
appreciating neurodiversity
As clinicians who are neurodiverse in various ways ourselves, we know (from the inside out) that the world is not made with us in mind. All our therapists excel in adapting skills, materials, and processes so that they are tailored for each individual. Our highest value is to make things work for each client, as opposed to following a protocol.
You will find a home here if you:
find yourself wondering why others seem able to follow routines, get places on time, or start/finish tasks.
have big emotions or struggle curtailing impulses.
find it hard to express emotions and are often seen as angry, flat, or in your own world.
are able to hyper-fixate on subjects you love (even to the point of forgetting to eat or sleep), but taking care of daily living tasks bores you or simply escapes your notice.
want to find compassion for yourself and all your traits, and learn to see your strengths in a world that frequently misunderstands you.
radically compassionate c-ptsd and bpd care
Holding Both Counseling takes it’s name from the core DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) idea that two things that seem as though they are opposites can be simultaneously true. We believe that seemingly oppositional thoughts, feelings, and even sensations can be held together in their fullness and complexity.
If you are diagnosed with Complex PTSD or Borderline Personality Disorder, or have self-identified with the traits of these diagnoses, you may have tried DBT or RO-DBT in the past. We practice DBT that doesn’t suck© - which speaks to the flexibility and validation we bring to the work. Whether you coped through over-control (rigid and rule-following) or under-control (chaotic and “too much”), or a mix of the two, you will find a therapist that can offer skills to bring balance to your lived experience.
We believe your wise coping is not your fault and it was the best you can/could do, even it it is the cause of your suffering now. We partner with clients to find new ways to move forward. We offer DBT skills and concepts without judgement and with an eye toward effectiveness.*
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) or Radically Open Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (RO-DBT) is for you if you want to:
find a middle path that honors both your emotions and your logical side.
navigate interpersonal relationships with more ease and flexibility.
cultivate mindfulness to tend to your frazzled nervous system.
learn to regulate big emotions or connect with them as a source of wisdom.
make sure you have skills to manage crisis moments and stay safe.
*Please note, for our clients safety, we can only serve those that are appropriate for the outpatient level of care. We clarify what this means during intake. We refer clients or potential clients to higher levels of care that can support escalated needs for the safety of all. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis and are not safe at this time, please reach out to Multnomah County Crisis line 503-988-4888, or go to your nearest emergency medical department.