Alita Beaser

***Currently accepting new clients***

At the moment, I see clients virtually through a secure, GDPR & HIPAA complient platform called Cliniko (don't worry, you won't need to download anything extra for this!). I am currently searching for the perfect space for in-person sessions, and hope to be able to offer those in the near future!

I currently have space for new clients on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. 

I do have a limited number of sliding scale spots available for those who are students or otherwise experiencing financial insecurity, so please don't let finances be a barrier to your healing. 

My goal is to provide a safe space for you to process and heal, offering you practical tools, empathic listening, and non-judgmental, collaborative exploration of what you bring to therapy.  

My foundational training is in Person-Centred Counselling. This means I believe you are the expert on all things you, and I view my job as one of coming alongside you to help you process, heal, and grow. I believe all people have the capacity for growth and change, especially if they’re given a non-judgmental, empathic space to do so. I work in an eclectic way, which means that I pull from the MSc programs I've completed as well as the additional training I've received since. I have a BSc in Psychology from Oregon State University (USA), an MSc in Person-Centred Counselling from the University of Aberdeen (UK), as well as an MSc in Applied Psychology from Robert Gordon University (UK). I have additional training in trauma-informed care, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Radically-Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (RO-DBT). As part of my membership with the BACP, I am required (and look forward to!) completing additional trainings each year, allowing me to offer you evidence-based therapy that is in line with current best practice. 

I also draw heavily on my background in psychology to provide evidence-based psychoeducation (information to help you better understand mental health and wellbeing) around topics you may bring to therapy. This means that sessions with me will include space for listening and processing, but that I also have lots of evidence-based, practical tools to offer you during our work together.

My counselling style is warm, authentic, and genuine. Your sessions will be 100% about you, and I welcome you wherever you may be emotionally and mentally during each session. I often incorporate a mix of humour, metaphors, pop culture references, examples, and psychoeducation during sessions to help you find greater understanding. It is my desire to help you move through anything that has you feeling stuck to find healing and growth.

As for the more practical bits, each session will be unique to what you need on that particular day. Some clients who are feeling anxious and stressed like starting sessions with a guided relaxation practice that I lead them through to come into the session feeling calm and grounded. Some people prefer to come with a list of topics they're hoping to discuss. Others wait to see what comes up once the session has started. Some have very specific goals for therapy, and we start each session by checking in on those to see what feels most relevant that day. Sometimes a client will remember at the end of a session something else they wanted to explore, so we'll begin the following session by checking to see if that's still something they want to talk about. Some clients want specific tools to try between sessions - I hesitate to call this homework, as it's only ever an offering as something that the client might find useful - and so we start the session by talking through how that tool worked for them. Regardless of how the session starts, we'll spend our time collaboratively exploring the things that come up for you each week, and I will offer some tools and psychoeducation along the way.

Each session is 50 minutes long. I recommend committing to 4 sessions to start, although there is no set number of sessions that I offer, as it is entirely up to you and your individual journey. We’ll check in each week to see how you’re feeling and whether you’d like to continue.

Before your first session, you'll be emailed information on how to setup your Cliniko online portal. This will allow you to access a secure messaging system to communicate with me, as well as view future appointments you have scheduled and view any documents throughout our work together. One of these documents will be an initial assessment form that will ask some brief questions about who you are and what brings you to therapy, along with what you're hoping to get out of our work together. If you're an online client, the Cliniko portal is also the secure, GDPR & HIPAA complient video platform we'll be using for our sessions. 

During the first session, we'll start by going over what therapy can and cannot do, as well as what therapeutic confidentiality looks like and it's limits. We'll go over the assessment you completed online and I may ask follow-up questions if there's any additional information I need. If you're experiencing any thoughts around hurting yourself or anybody else, we'll conduct a risk assessment and build a safety plan together. I'll also make sure you know your options if you need additional support between sessions. 

Typically, all of this takes just under half of our first session. It may seem like a long time, but it's really important to make sure we're on the same page and you understand the limitations of therapy and confidentiality, and that I ensure you're safe. We'll also chat briefly about how often you'd like to have sessions - most people start with weekly, but that's flexible. Once this is done, the remaining time is used to explore whatever feels most relevant to you that day! Typically people use this time to give a bit more background on what brought them to therapy, but the time is yours to use as you wish. Some people prefer to use the time to create a plan of what they wish to tackle in the following weeks, some prefer to use it as a time to get to know each other better - there are lots of options.