Philip Valentinetti

If you’re considering therapy, chances are something in your life isn’t working the way you want it to. You may feel overwhelmed, stuck in familiar patterns, disconnected from yourself or the people around you, or simply ready for something to change.

I work with people navigating anxiety, relationship challenges, people-pleasing and conflict avoidance, trauma, grief, identity concerns, life transitions, and difficulty expressing what they need or want. My goal isn’t to fit you into a box or tell you who you should become. It’s to understand what life is like for you, what is getting in your way, and where you want to go from here.

I believe people are far too complex and individual for therapy to be one-size-fits-all. My approach is collaborative and participatory: you bring expertise about your own life, and I bring clinical training, perspective, curiosity, and tools that can help us make sense of what you’re experiencing.

Depending on what you need, I may draw from Gestalt therapy, EMDR, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and other approaches. Rather than applying a technique simply because it fits a diagnosis, we’ll work together to understand the unresolved experiences, beliefs, relationships, or habitual patterns that may be keeping you stuck.

Therapy with me is active. I’ll listen closely and seek to understand you as an individual, but I’ll also ask questions, offer observations, and challenge you when doing so can help you move toward the life and relationships you want.

Our first sessions will focus on understanding what you’re experiencing, what you’re struggling with, and what you hope will be different as a result of therapy.

From there, we’ll develop goals together. I don’t want to decide where I think you need to go; I want us to identify where you want to go and determine how therapy can help you get there.

You can expect me to be engaged, curious, straightforward, and collaborative. I want therapy to be a place where you can speak openly, examine things you may have avoided elsewhere, and better understand both what has shaped you and what you want to change.

Ultimately, the work is individualized to you. We’ll regularly pay attention to what is helping, what isn’t, and whether the work we’re doing continues to move you in a meaningful direction.