Therapy for Trauma, Body Liberation, Perinatal Mental Health in Washington State
Fiddlehead Therapy offers compassionate care & therapy to individual adults who’ve experienced trauma; who are struggling with body acceptance or navigating weight stigma; and who are managing life transitions and emotional complications related to family building, reproductive health and perinatal mental health.
“When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.”
― Audre Lorde
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“The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience and a sense of flow.”
― Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and HeartsI draw on compassion and curiosity to understand how you’ve lived with and through trauma and challenges. I have the utmost respect for the ways your brain, your nervous system, your body, your emotions have adapted. Sometimes these adaptations were helpful in the past, but no longer serve you. Sometimes we get pieces of psychological shrapnel stuck in the wound and we need to clear it out so the body can heal cleanly.
I see the goal of trauma therapy as supporting your healing. You may always have a scar, but hopefully it doesn’t feel like it’s tugging on you internally, prohibiting movement and growth, or causing more distress.
When we are living through traumatic experiences - whether it’s ongoing violence, abuse, racism, or war, I see my role as supporting you in naming and identifying the trauma, finding as much safety as possible, and recognizing the resilience and ways in which you and your community have survived.
This healing work is a privilege for me. I continue learning ways to integrate our beliefs, early experiences, emotions, stories, and the body in this process. I use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy), narrative, attachment and psychodynamic theories in therapy and am also pursuing training in Somatic Experiencing (a body-oriented intervention for trauma).
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“Getting it right” is a body-shame paradigm. Radical self-love is honoring how we are all products of a rigged system designed to keep us stuck in stigma and shame. The only way to beat that system is by giving ourselves something the system never will: compassion.”
― Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-LoveI believe we are each inherently worthwhile. And I know that our culture, families, providers, and media can instead connect worth & value with proximity to whiteness, thinness, productivity, activity, ability, etc. We can end up with deeply internalized beliefs about our (lack of) worth and emotions like shame, disgust, embarrassment. And if we live in a stigmatized body, we also experience discrimination and oppression causing further stress and distress.
So, what do we do in therapy? I work with folks who might be recognizing that they want to change their current relationships with their body, food, movement, weight, illness, or pain.
Often this involves identifying those internalized beliefs; understanding how the autonomic nervous system might be reacting to triggers; practicing nonjudgmental awareness (mindfulness), acceptance and compassion; learning if or how disconnection or dissociation from the body shows up; processing themes of grief and loss.
And, I’m always recognizing and naming the systemic factors at play — and that self-care and body positivity won’t change those.
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The experiences of family building, pregnancy, birth, loss, postpartum, bonding and parenting are times that come with high expectations in ourselves and others for excitement and joy. And these are also times when we can experience emotional complications that can turn us inside out and upside down.
I’ve supported folks of all genders, birthing and non-birthing, through these life transitions, through the mental health challenges, through the identity and relationship transitions, and through the bonding and parenting joys and difficulties. I’ve continued working in this area over the last 10+ years because I feel so grateful to see folks recover their strength and joy. Plus trauma and body liberation are often intersecting issues in the perinatal time.
FAQs
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I charge $175 for a therapy session which typically lasts 50-55 minutes. I also offer an extended 80-minute appointment for $225. Extended sessions can be helpful for a first appointment, EMDR, complex trauma, or acute crisis situations. I accept HSA/FSA cards and debit/credit cards.
I reserve a block of time for your appointment and respect that both of our time is valuable. I have a 24-hour cancellation policy with the exception of illness or emergency. Forgetting about an appointment, running late, or being busy are not emergencies. If you cancel or miss your session with less than 24 hours and it’s not due to illness or emergency, you will be charged the full fee. If I cancel within 24 hours and it’s not due to illness or emergency, your next session fee is waived.
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I am not contracted with insurance companies.
The benefit of not relying on insurance is we can prioritize your needs and goals versus the requirements of the mental health insurance system—which I view as broken.
However I also recognize that for many, utilizing insurance is a financial necessity. You may have "out-of-network" benefits as part of your insurance plan, which may reimburse you for part of my fee.
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In a few words, I work with individual adults. Many of the people I work with are first and second generation immigrants and LGBTQIA+ individuals. I have found tremendous healing and support working with providers who are fat and/or explicitly Health at Every Size® or fat-positive so I want to be clear that I am a mid-fat woman and work from a HAES and fat liberation perspective.
Many, but not all, of the people I work with are considering family building, pregnant, or parenting. I enjoy working with expectant and new parents of all genders. I welcome transgender individuals to my practice and am LGBTQIA+ affirming. I know that same sex, queer, and trans parents experience different challenges, discrimination and oppression and I'm ready to bring my humility and experience to support LGBTQIA+ families navigating those experiences with resilience.
I've also facilitated new fathers groups and enjoyed working with new dads individually around their own adjustment, mood, parenting challenges.
The best way to determine if we might be a good fit for you is to schedule a free, brief consultation.
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I work with individuals experiencing
problems with mood, including depression and bipolar
anxiety, intrusive / scary thoughts, obsessive compulsive “disorder” (OCD)
perinatal mood and anxiety “disorders” (PMADs) including prenatal depression and anxiety, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis
trauma and complex Post-Traumatic Stress “Disorder” (PTSD)
identity transitions, roles and losses
challenges with body image and disordered eating (from a Health at Every Size® framework)
parenting and bonding difficulties
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I value my training in relational psychodynamic therapy; attachment therapy; behavioral therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT); and somatic therapies including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I also draw from my personal mindfulness practices and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training.
I am also working on unlearning and recognizing the limitations of traditional psychodynamic and behavioral therapy practices, particularly for historically marginalized groups. Pursuing Body Trust® training with the Center for Body Trust and learning from anti-racism, decolonization, disability justice and fat liberation leaders, scholars, and practitioners has been important in how I approach therapy, supervision and consultation.
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Sometimes I share information, sometimes I sit in silence with you. Sometimes we practice a skill, sometimes I encourage you to do less. I'm a warm, calm presence in the therapy room, but I admit I have no poker face. I hold space for the ways in which larger systems affect us and seek to understand your experiences, strengths, values and challenges knowing that you are the expert on your life. I believe that we find healing, strength and resilience in connection — therapy might be one part of that, and healing also often happens in formal and informal groups, in our families, and in our communities.
There’s also laughter, tea, tissues, and fun, textured pillows. You’re welcome to take your shoes off in my office. If you’re at home, I’m happy to be introduced to your houseplants, cats and dogs!
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You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.
Under the “No Surprises” law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.
Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.
Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.
For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call 1-877-696-6775.
The Fiddlehead Therapy Good Faith Estimate can also be downloaded.
Locations
In-Person in Mountlake Terrace, WA
at the Terrace View Counseling Collaborative
21907 64th Ave W, Suite 330
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
The office is two minutes off of I-5 just over the King / Snohomish county line in Mountlake Terrace. Convenient to Seattle, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Everett, Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park. Free parking and ADA accessible building. You can read more about the office and accessibility at the Terrace View Counseling Collaborative website.
Online Therapy in Washington State
Connecting with a therapist from your own home can make therapy more accessible.
You will always join the same zoom room: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7164600652 (Meeting ID: 716 460 0652)
You’ll enter the zoom waiting room and I’ll admit you to the meeting at the appointment time.
More information about telehealth with Fiddlehead Therapy.
Have questions or ready to begin?
Schedule a time below to connect by phone or on zoom with Laurie Ganberg, LICSW