Saleena Neuhaus

If you've been awake at 3am running the same loop, or carrying something that happened to you that still shows up in your body years later, or white-knuckling your way through a job that takes more than it gives — you're in the right place. I'm Saleena Neuhaus, and I've been a clinical social worker for more than 13 years. I'm down-to-earth, evidence-based, conversational, and I think shared humor belongs in the therapy room — you're not going to get a blank stare and a notepad from me. My work centers on anxiety, depression, PTSD and trauma, insomnia and sleep problems, ADHD, adjustment and life change, occupational stress, and the relational stuff sitting underneath a lot of it. Sleep is a particular focus of mine, and it's often the thread worth pulling first — when sleep comes back, everything else gets more workable. I've trained and practiced as a trauma-informed provider, which in practice means we move at your pace and nothing gets forced open before you're ready. Most of all, I want you to leave with real hope that recovery is possible and that feeling better is genuinely available to you.

I use a lot of different approaches, chosen for you rather than for a protocol, and always in a person-centered way. Depending on what you're working on, that might mean CBT and trauma-focused CBT, EMDR when something from the past is still running the present, acceptance and commitment work when the goal is living well alongside something that isn't going to fully disappear, mindfulness when your nervous system needs somewhere to land, or emotion-focused work when the difficulty is really about connection. We build on your strengths — I'm far more interested in what's already working in your life than in cataloguing what isn't. And I support you in developing the strategies you decide you want and need to navigate your life, not the ones I think you should want. That distinction matters to me. Therapy is a tool and a resource for your recovery and growth, and you get to decide how you use it.

I'll tell you exactly what the first session looks like, because surprises aren't helpful. I start with some specific questions to get a baseline on your symptoms — how you're sleeping, how you're functioning, plus some health, behavior, and safety questions. It's structured on purpose: it gives us something to measure against later so we can both tell whether this is actually working. Then we shift into a real conversation about why you're here and what you're hoping for. It's completely fine not to know yet — figuring that out is often part of the process. If it's useful, I'll share a starting diagnostic picture and explain what it does and doesn't mean, and you can ask me anything about it. Then we decide together where to begin. Shared decision-making isn't a slogan for me — you're the one who has to live with the plan, so you get a real say in it.