Heather Ross

I have a casual and accepting approach to others and find this to be necessary for a therapeutic relationship. I see the relationship between therapist and a client as the number one factor for outcomes in therapy. I have been working in mental health in some form for the last 12 years, and as a therapist for over 6 years. I have experience working with adults struggling with addiction. I have experience working with adolescents to young adults and their families working through attachment and many different mental health struggles. I have experience running groups such as Smart Recovery, DBT, equine, attachments, smart goals, and LGBTQIA support group. I love to spend time with my three dogs and my son. I love camping, the outdoors, Pickleball, board games, and other activities while also enjoying being at home working on crafts of all sorts (resin, paper craft with my Cricut, painting, ceramics, costumes or face paint, etc.). I’d like to improve my skills at roller skating, long boarding, and volleyball.

I tend to have an open-minded view of therapy and have had to think outside the box for how to make sessions productive for individuals and families in different situations. We each arrive at therapy with a variety of beliefs about what that looks like and I tend to like to challenge people's ideas of what therapy is or can be. I love to incorporate experiential therapy into sessions as people tend to be more relaxed in these settings versus just sitting in an office (fidgets and puzzles can help as well to take away some of the self-critical noise in session or provide a soothing rhythm for others). Experiential therapy can include equine, art, music, outdoors, walking during sessions, paddle boarding, etc. Online therapy will be a new challenge of how to incorporate experiential therapy into these sessions, although I have experience doing virtual family sessions for over 6 years as well as some individual sessions this way as well. I tend to allow the client to drive where they want our work to focus and help them build trust in themselves that they know what they need or can trust themselves to know what they need. I’m always open to feedback and if someone is needing me to be the one driving it initially I can step more into that role.

I do utilize Brainspotting in my practice and I have witnessed it's ability to help clients and myself work through blocks at a faster pace than just using talk therapy. Clients will gain more confidence and trust in themselves. Clients will take away what they put into it, so the more feedback they provide on needs or expectations they have of me or the sessions the better it is for the sessions overall. I have witnessed transformations of many clients who came to me feeling low self-worth, untrusting of others, and believing negative thoughts about themselves. Over time they light up again and become interested in life again and are able to start pursuing their dreams that they may have given up on.