Kristen English

I am a Pennsylvania-licensed psychologist with 23 years of counseling experience with adults of all ages, from late-adolescence and across the lifespan.

My practice focuses on helping individuals develop personally meaningful ways of navigating anxiety and depression, grief and loss, trauma and PTSD, time-of-life transitions, and identity development. These therapeutic partnerships often involve identity-affirming explorations of racial, ethnic, LGBTQIA, and neuro-diversity matters within clients’ lives.

Helping clients feels safe, regarded, and at ease... I work hard to understand what each individual needs from me to feel these things at the forefront of our relationship.

I feel really confident in my empathic attunement toward clients as I authentically connect with each individual. I prioritize creating a shared space of sincerity as clients begin telling me their stories.

And what an honor it is, helping clients share their narratives in a manner that highlights their courage and resilience, as well as their yearning and needs.

As we begin to explore and understand all of these things, we hone in on each client’s inner resources and external supports — identifying these things and figuring out how each individual client can feel most empowered in themselves.

I utilize a humanistic, strengths-based style while drawing on CBT, psychodynamic, and narrative techniques as I support clients' development of self-worth, flexibility, and self-compassion. We work toward positive growth and change and toward the development of nourishing, supportive relationships.

I strive to help individuals feel deeply regarded as I support clients in exploring their experiences of self-worth, hope, flexibility, and compassion toward themselves and with others. What keeps a person stuck within struggles and what inner strengths are beacons for positive growth and change? Clients and I collaborate through curiosity and creativity, as we seek to identify clients' strengths and their inner resources (so often already there, but not yet acknowledged) for navigating life's really tough moments.

From both a human level and a clinical level, I am excited to learn about what is bringing a client to therapy. Whether it is circumstances or something more abstract, I seek to help clients feel safe and regarded as they introduce me to their distress or concerns.

I will guide clients every step of the way, but within a focused conversational way, rather than a formal history. I find it's most productive for me to get to know clients by hearing their stories in whatever terms make most sense for conveying them.

If it's helpful to hear some of the spots that clients and I tend to touch on when first connecting, figure I'll be curious about how exactly the presenting concerns manifest and how they presently impact daily life and the lives of the people most important to clients. I am very glad to hear about family/friend dynamics, psychological and medical history, and any other areas that clients feel are important for me to know about, as I begin getting to know them.

I've worked with clients for decades and also find it very helpful to provide digestible bits of information about neuroscience's and evolutionary psychology's roles in our challenges and how they work in confluence with attachment style.

We will talk about all of this in service of seeking out clients' points of resilience and strength, tailoring our work to client-centered ways for managing their challenges.