Joey Avrick

I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with experience working with adolescents and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, major life transitions, and more complex mental health concerns. My background includes several years working in residential and community-based mental health settings.

I believe people make more sense when we understand the experiences, relationships, and patterns that have shaped them. I’m especially interested in helping people who feel stuck, disconnected from themselves, overly self-critical, or caught in patterns they understand intellectually but have difficulty changing. You do not need to arrive at therapy already knowing what is wrong or exactly what you want to work on. We can figure that out together.

My approach is curious, collaborative, and relational. Rather than immediately trying to correct a thought, behavior, or feeling, I want to understand it: What is happening? When did this pattern begin? What purpose might it have served? What keeps it going now?

I draw from psychodynamic and relational therapy, cognitive and behavioral approaches, mindfulness, family systems, and other evidence-based practices depending on the needs of the person I’m working with. We may explore past experiences when they help us understand the present, but therapy with me is not only about gaining insight. We will also look for opportunities to practice doing something differently. My goal is to help you better understand yourself while gradually building the ability to respond to your life with greater freedom and intention.

The first session is primarily an opportunity for us to get to know one another. I’ll ask about what brought you to therapy, what has been happening in your life, important parts of your history, and what you would eventually like to be different. You’ll also have an opportunity to ask questions and get a sense of what it is like to talk with me.

You do not need to tell your entire life story in one session, and I don’t expect you to immediately know how to explain everything you are experiencing. We’ll start wherever you are, identify what seems most important, and begin developing an understanding of what might be helpful moving forward.