Sheila Wright

Contact Information: Hello! Please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] or through my confidential voicemail 908.391.0726 to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. I may have availability that my Headway booking calendar does not reflect. I would be happy to speak with you about working together. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (LAMFT). I offer counseling and therapy to individual adults and couples, and I sometimes work with families that include adolescent members. I am also an E-RYT-500 multi-style yoga teacher and educator, as well as a RPYT (prenatal/postpartum) instructor and Lamaze trained childbirth educator. Additionally, I hold a certificate in Positive Psychology, and my research in this area has been published by the American Psychological Association in their APA Handbooks in Psychology Series. My keen interest in psychiatric nutrition also informs my holistic (whole-person) approach to helping clients flourish. I love helping my clients to achieve sustainable positive change and well-being! To learn more about my professional background, please visit my website: www.ciw.care

My work with clients is based on an integrative counseling approach that is informed by different evidence-based treatment modalities which honor clients as collaborative partners in therapy. While I am non-judgmental, I do encourage clients to actively pursue the positive changes that can enrich their lives with greater meaning, purpose, and joy. Towards this end, I utilize aspects of CBT/Talk Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, Existential Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, Systems Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as well as the Gottman method for couples, etc. I treat clients from a holistic (whole-person) perspective, since the core tenets of good mental health work in unison to support sustainable positive change and well-being.

The first session (also known as an “intake”) is an opportunity for client and counselor to come to know one another and to determine “goodness of fit” (compatibility and alignment). During this first session, I am actively listening to my client’s story to understand not only what brings them to therapy, but to also identify the personal strengths that can help clients reach their therapeutic goals. My aim from the start is to build rapport such that clients feel heard, valued, and empowered to make positive changes in their lives.

I strive to make all counseling sessions time well spent, so that clients know that they have gained both personal insight and useful "tools" which they can utilize to craft richer lives. Research strongly suggests that the greatest change factor in the therapeutic process comes from the rapport that clients establish with their therapist. This factor is widely considered to be more critical than the type of therapeutic modality employed or a counselor's therapeutic orientation. For this reason, and for the enjoyment that I also experience in coming to know my clients, I am always actively working to build a strong therapeutic relationship.