Christine Johnsen

I’m a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) who believes therapy should feel like a genuine, collaborative relationship. My goal is to create a space where you can be yourself, feel understood, and work toward meaningful change at a pace that feels manageable.

I specialize in working with adults and adolescents experiencing anxiety, OCD, ADHD, trauma, and the effects of difficult or overwhelming life experiences. My approach is trauma-informed and individualized, drawing from evidence-based treatments including EMDR, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Written Exposure Therapy (WET), and other cognitive-behavioral and skills-based approaches.

I also have experience providing clinical supervision and supporting other mental health professionals, which has strengthened my commitment to thoughtful, ethical, evidence-based care. I believe therapy works best when we understand not only what you’re struggling with, but how your experiences, relationships, strengths, and environment have shaped the way you navigate the world.

You can expect me to be compassionate, straightforward, and engaged in the therapy process. We’ll work together to identify what is keeping you stuck, build practical skills you can actually use outside of sessions, and create changes that help you feel more confident and connected in your everyday life.

My approach to therapy is collaborative, genuine, and individualized. I believe you are the expert on your own life, and my role is to help you better understand what you’re experiencing, identify patterns that may be keeping you stuck, and develop tools that create meaningful change.

I’m an active therapist, which means our sessions involve more than simply talking about what happened during your week. Depending on your needs and goals, we may build practical coping and communication skills, challenge unhelpful patterns, process difficult experiences, practice tolerating uncertainty or discomfort, or explore how past experiences continue to influence your life today.

My work is trauma-informed and grounded in evidence-based approaches, including DBT, EMDR, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Written Exposure Therapy (WET), and cognitive-behavioral interventions. I especially enjoy working with trauma, anxiety, OCD, and ADHD, and I tailor treatment to the individual rather than expecting every client to fit into the same therapeutic approach.

Most importantly, I want therapy to be a space where you can show up as yourself. I value humor, honesty, curiosity, and direct communication, and I strive to balance compassion and validation with gentle challenges when they can help you move toward the life you want.

Your first session is an opportunity for us to get to know each other and begin figuring out what you want from therapy. We’ll talk about what brought you in, what has been going on in your life, what you’ve tried before, and what you would like to be different. You don’t need to have everything figured out before you arrive, that’s part of what we’ll work on together.

I want the first session to feel comfortable and conversational rather than like an interview. You’ll always have control over what you’re ready to talk about, particularly when it comes to difficult or traumatic experiences. My priority is understanding you as a whole person, not simply identifying symptoms.

Together, we’ll begin identifying your goals for therapy and discuss what approaches may be most helpful for reaching them. By the end of the first few sessions, my goal is for you to have a clearer understanding of what we’re working toward, how we plan to get there, and most importantly, to feel like you have a therapist who genuinely understands you.