Therapy

Jennifer Downs Counseling Session

“To live a brave life, you must believe you’re wor­thy of love and belong­ing. And a strong belief in our wor­thi­ness doesn’t just hap­pen — it’s cul­ti­vat­ed and prac­ticed, with the intent of liv­ing a life defined by courage, com­pas­sion, and con­nec­tion.” —Brené Brown

Change IS Possible!

At times, life presents us with cir­cum­stances that cause us to feel help­less and alone. We may even feel hope­less — like we’ll nev­er feel whole, hap­py, and pro­duc­tive again. In some instances, we’ve inher­it­ed a genet­ic ten­den­cy we feel inca­pable of chang­ing. Always, we have some deeply seat­ed beliefs we inher­it­ed as chil­dren that no longer serve us yet keep reap­pear­ing and run­ning our lives. We all have an inner crit­ic to whom we give way too much airtime!

Compassion-Focused Therapy Can Help

Yellow Butterfly

“This rev­o­lu­tion­ary act of treat­ing our­selves ten­der­ly can begin to undo the aver­sive mes­sages of a life­time.” —Tara Brach

Developing inner resources through mind­ful­ness and rad­i­cal self-compassion tools and prac­tices allows us to respond to our pain with accep­tance rather than self-criticism. Self-compassion means that instead of judg­ing our­selves for our mis­takes, we are empa­thet­ic toward our­selves when con­front­ed with our imperfections.

Self-compassion is a chal­leng­ing prac­tice for most peo­ple. It goes against our con­di­tion­ing to ask for what we want rather than always putting oth­ers first. It is, how­ev­er, a pow­er­ful way of heal­ing wounds and shift­ing old pat­terns that sep­a­rate us from oth­ers. This skill can help us meet life’s dif­fi­cul­ties with wis­dom and kind­ness, cre­at­ing greater emo­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty and resilience so we are capa­ble of recov­er­ing and pro­gress­ing with more ease.

For more infor­ma­tion and exten­sive research on this sub­ject, please see the Resources page.

Compassion-focused counseling can help you cope with:

  • an over­ac­tive inner critic
  • grief and loss
  • tran­si­tions and ques­tions regard­ing life purpose
  • stress-related and oth­er health issues
  • fear, neg­a­tive pat­terns, thoughts, and beliefs
  • depres­sion
  • anx­i­ety
  • separation/divorce
  • rela­tion­ship issues

You can begin to:

  • con­nect to your inner resources
  • become more respon­sive and less reac­tive in con­flict­ual situations
  • change your inter­nal experience
  • man­age your mood and anx­ious thoughts
  • redis­cov­er love and accep­tance for your­self and another
  • han­dle a new life tran­si­tion with grace
  • calm your ner­vous sys­tem and man­age stress
  • gain strength and resilien­cy to cope with grief and rebuild after loss
  • trust your­self to make healthy choices
  • become more self-accepting and less self-critical
  • cre­ate more inti­ma­cy and con­nec­tion with others

Relationships

There’s a moun­tain I keep try­ing to climb to find love. Why do I keep climb­ing the moun­tain when I’m already there? —Comment by a client

Older Couple in Love at Sunset

“Feeling loved and lov­ing mat­ters to us beyond all else.” —Tara Brach

Good rela­tion­ships with your­self and oth­ers are at the heart of a well-balanced, joy­ful, healthy, and pro­duc­tive life. The dif­fi­cul­ties that arise in cre­at­ing healthy rela­tion­ships — although painful — can be pow­er­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties for deep per­son­al and spir­i­tu­al growth. Click here to learn more about what may be pre­vent­ing you from con­nect­ing more deeply with your partner.

Cost & Structure

The cost for an hour-long ses­sion is $100 for pri­vate pay.

I am a provider for the fol­low­ing insur­ance plans: Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, Pacific Source, Providence, and Reliant Behavioral Health EAP.

Schedule a Session

I offer a com­pli­men­ta­ry phone con­sul­ta­tion to answer your ques­tions and ensure we can devel­op a rap­port that allows for the safe­ty and trust nec­es­sary to explore and resolve issues. The coun­sel­ing rela­tion­ship is a sig­nif­i­cant one and works most effec­tive­ly when there is com­mit­ment and the will­ing­ness to share hon­est­ly and open­ly. I’m ded­i­cat­ed to active­ly work­ing with you at every ses­sion to meet your desired goals. Please call 541.488.4872 or email me with any ques­tions or to book your first session.

Jennifer Downs

MA, LPC | 541.488.4872 info@jenniferdowns.net
Psychology Today