Therapists for college students near Portland, OR

Hello, my name is Sarah Nelson (she/her/hers), I come to my work as a therapist holding tight to the knowledge that all people want to live meaningful lives with deep loving connection to others. Perhaps you are feeling a loss of meaning, a loss of connection, or are in the midst of a life transition and that has led you here. Whatever has led you to seek therapy, I am glad you are here and I welcome you as you are, as you were, and as you would like to be. I approach my work with a desire to connect and to understand, to hold hope, and to guide towards insight. As a counseling psychologist I am trained to work with a wide variety of presenting concerns and within many modalities. My approach to therapy is rooted in warmth and connection and you: who you are, where you come from, and what is meaningful to you. Our work together will be deep and relational. Within this person-centered approach I bring attention to early attachment and current relationships through the lens of feminist liberation psychology. This lens means that I see your context on a historical, local, and cultural scale as inextricable from your current mental health. INDIVIDUAL THERAPY: I provide person-centered, holistic, and contextualized individual counseling that is rooted in attachment, connection, liberation and social justice. I am trained to work with a variety of concerns and using a variety of modalities and most often work with: anxiety, depression, identity development and transitions, grief and loss, relationship concerns, sleep concerns, transgender mental health, sexuality, and existential concerns. COUNSELING FOR TRANSITIONS: The transitions into and out of college and into and out of careers and jobs are frequently moments of fear and anxiety. These transitions can also be seasons of growth in self-understanding and moments for powerful shifts in identity. I have specialized training in career and academic counseling as well as business consultation and leadership development. I offer person-centered, compassionate, and contextualized therapy for these seasons of transformation, whether you are: transitioning from college, moving between jobs, reentering the job-market after family leave, longing for a more balanced work and home life, or developing your ability to lead. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT: I offer psychosocial affirming evaluations for gender affirming and confirming surgeries and interventions following the WPATH standards of care guidelines. I am able to provide these assessments and letters of support to any resident of Oregon. I am committed to making such assessments accessible. PERINATAL AND PARENTING SUPPORT: The seasons of pregnancy and parenthood are marked by layered, sacred, and complex transitions and changes in identity and relationships. I offer inclusive, holistic, and holding therapy for individuals who are trying to get pregnant, are pregnant, have experienced pregnancy loss or fertility concerns, abortion, miscarriage, or for those who are transitioning to parenthood or have parenting concerns. I am particularly interested in helping individuals build intentional parenting patterns through better understanding of their own relationships and mental health. I have specialized training in life-span development, particularly in prenatal and postpartum counseling and in parenting.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

I specialize in helping young adults who are detransitioning or desisting, or otherwise struggling with the current culture of identity politics and groupthink on college campuses. If you value nuance over black-and-white thinking, and would rather see yourself as a strong, resilient person than a perpetual victim of forces outside your control, we might be a match. I respect patients of diverse cultural, religious, and political backgrounds, as well as sexual orientations. Use the link below to book a free discovery call.

Welcome, I’m glad you’re here! Starting therapy or finding a new therapist is a courageous step. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, depression, a big life transition, questions of identity or the deep waves of grief I offer a compassionate space where you can feel seen and heard. I’ve supported many clients moving through anxiety, relationship issues with partners and family members and have supported young people moving through life stages.

We’re a small team of Oregon-based therapists who get how overwhelming and complicated college life can feel. Between classes, relationships, work, and figuring out your future, it’s easy to feel stretched thin or misunderstood. Here, you’ll find a space where your identity is respected, your pace is honored, and your story is taken seriously. We know trust takes time, especially if you’ve felt dismissed or unseen before. That’s why we move at your pace, creating room for the full complexity of what you’re going through—without rushing toward quick fixes. Our approach is trauma-informed, accessible, and affirming — always centering your safety, your voice, and your unique way of being. In this space, you don’t have to perform, explain yourself, or shrink down. You can just show up as you are.

Our life experiences impact who we are and who we become. The positive experiences stay with us, but the negative experiences stay with us as well. Sometimes it helps to look at all these experiences – both positive and negative to help us gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. The relationships we have had throughout our lives are also deeply influential in shaping who we are and our current relationships. Therapy can be helpful in giving each person a greater sense and deeper understanding of who they are and how their relationships and experiences have impacted them. By looking at all these pieces we can place them together to form a whole picture.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

I have a real passion for working with folks during difficult life transitions such as going to college, experiencing heartbreak, pregnancy, and becoming a parent. I believe in the healing power of connection and offer a non-judgmental space where you can be yourself. We will work together to establish your therapy goals, and I will continually check in on our dynamic to make sure you feel supported and understood. Ultimately, you are the expert on yourself. I will show up with compassion, curiosity, and authenticity. Trying to find a therapist who feels right for you can be daunting. I offer a free 15 minute phone consultation where we can get to know each other, discuss your current concerns, and see if we are a good fit.

I believe that therapy is an investment in oneself, a space to learn about your personal emotions, life patterns, and ways you want to live your life. Everyone deserves to have a non-judgmental individual in their corner! As an old soul, I have a deep well of compassion which I balance with some "real talk" that encourages one to examine their lives. I enjoy working with people throughout the life spectrum.

Understand yourself, grow, and develop capacities for sustainable symptom relief. Mental healthcare is a collaborative effort. Depending on your unique needs, we may focus on how you experience your thoughts, feelings, actions, relationships, identity, and sense of meaning. We also consider available internal and environment supports to facilitate healing; for some this may include the support of medication. You have the capacity for growth and healing. We can help you discover and build pathways toward symptom relief, healthier living, and generally feeling more alive. This can include developing greater freedom from distressing patterns of behavior and choosing new ones as you see fit. We use evidence based practices that focus on the unfolding process of discovery, growth, self-exploration, examining emotional blind spots, and understanding relationship patterns.

A therapist who is also a sensitive soul helping my fellow nerds and weirdos find their truth and thrive. I love working with the queer community, ADHDers, artists and theater kids!

I specialize in working with individuals who are seeking to manage their anxiety, help with their performance and heal from past trauma. The approach I use in therapy is one that is deeply relational, mixed with the latest interventions that embrace a holistic point of view. I'm trained in nervous system interventions, as well as EMDR, and often utilize a collaborative approach to help clients meet their goals.

I am a highly trained psychotherapist and psychoanalyst and I treat adolescents and adults who are struggling with difficulties in living, including depression, anxiety, self esteem, identity, sexual functioning, and career and parenting issues. If you feel lost, alone, worthless, or directionless, I can be of help. Psychotherapy or talk therapy is a collaborative process where we work to identify, explore and change repetitive patterns that may keep you stuck or unfulfilled whether in work, relationships, or life in general. Therapy can help you develop capacities, master traumas, resolve conflicts, gain clarity and perspective and lead a more fulfilling life. I did my psychoanalytic training at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute and graduated in 2006. A Training and Supervising Analyst, I am certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association. I am currently the director of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute, I teach. train and supervise mental health professionals. Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy are different from other forms of counseling and psychotherapy in that the focus is not just on alleviating symptoms but on understanding and working through out of awareness conflicts, beliefs, fears and patterns that effect current difficulties. Psychotherapy works best in an unhurried atmosphere where sessions are regular and frequent.

Congratulations on taking steps to getting support! Therapy is a way to not feel so alone with our pain, change our thoughts and behaviors so they are more adaptive, and allow us to live in a more expansive way. I see you as the expert on you, and my role as an expert in healing, together we collaborate to get you where you want to be in life. Brain science, attachment theory (childhood relationship with our caregivers), and the context of our culture (as it intersects with our identities) are the lenses I use to strengthen your awareness, feel feelings, and heal. Laughter and peace are a necessary part of healing too! I am trained in art therapy, attachment-focused EMDR, Brainspotting, and "parts work," or Internal Family Systems, to work with the limbic area (where trauma is stored) of the brain in order to heal both "big T" and "little t" trauma. Studies have shown that in order to heal trauma and change thoughts/feelings/behavior body and brain based therapies are necessary.

I see our work together as a team that balances putting in the hard work while understanding you have to have some laughs along the way! We collaborate to create your goals and methods to achieve those goals that play into your strengths. Above all modalities, the therapeutic relationship is what I value most in our work together. I primarily use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Art Therapy. Despite my degree in art therapy, my dual license allows me to provide more traditional talk therapy, too. There are many ways we can integrate art therapy to fit you, no matter experience or skill. Including the creative process can give you a more experiential approach that feels safer and more accurate than relying only on words. Art therapy can be a more effective alternative for those who have tried traditional talk therapy and found it unsuccessful.

Welcome to my practice! I am a psychotherapist who provides counseling services for individuals, couples and families navigating myriad challenges including relationship concerns, academic stressors, feelings of anxiety and depression, trauma, life transitions, grief, identity, self-esteem, illness, and others. My goal is to provide a trustworthy, authentic, consistent and loving space which honors the many complexities of our shared humanity. If you have questions, or would like to set up an initial complementary consultation, you may contact me at 503-705-8489, or head to my online booking page. Feel free to browse my website for more detailed information. My study of medicine and counseling continues to awaken my awe and sensitivity to the challenges and wonders of being human. I offer a holistic, openhearted approach to therapy which welcomes all of who you are and rests on the belief that you hold trustworthy impulses for health, wholeness and Self-love. Our work together will be a safe and collaborative journey through which you lead the way through your life’s digestion process. A crucible for transformation, deep intimacy with oneself or another requires courage and authenticity. I embrace multicultural humility and affirm people of all genders, abilities, races, ethnicities, spiritualities, religions and other intersectional diversities I am both a physician and an individual, couple and family therapist intern. I obtained a MS from Portland State University while also immersing in a year-long internship at the M.E.T.A. Institute (Mindfulness Experiential Therapeutic Approaches) where I studied Hakomi and other mindfulness-based approaches, including Re-Creation of the Self and Attachment Therapy. I have also studied Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) (Level 1 and 2 graduate, and Toni Herbine Blank's Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO ) (Level 1 graduate), Diana Fosha's attachment-based Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), (Level 1 graduate), and Les Greenberg's Emotion Focused and Susan Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), (level 1 externship), and Emotion Focused Therapy with Dr. Charles Edwards and Jaime Lynn Edwards. I have studied PolyVagal Theory with Deb Dana, Re-Creation of the Self with Jon Eisman, Fierce Love with Dr. SueAnne Piliero and the AEDP Institute, and Attachment Theory with META Institute. I also hold a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Midwestern University in Chicago. I completed a Radiology Residency at the University of Chicago and a Body-Imaging Fellowship at the University of Chicago. I was a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Radiology prior to transitioning to private practice.

Do you feel ready to explore and heal what’s getting in the way of you living your most joyful, creative, connected life? Are depression and anxiety keeping you either feeling weighed down, dull, and purposeless, or else on high alert and living from a place of fear and busyness round the clock? Are habitual thought-loops and tensions in the body keeping you in a perpetual state of mistrust, perfectionism/people-pleasing, and/or judgement towards yourself and others? Often, depression and anxiety are the result of an impulse getting “stuck” in the system and not being able complete its cycle. In my practice, I use a blend of Somatic Experiencing, Voice Dialogue Parts Work, and mindfulness-based present moment inquiry to create a compassionate and attuned space of inner exploration and healing. My goal is to help you move through "unfinished business" stored in the body and the mind, so that you can live in greater wellbeing and freedom. I am here to help you gently release the shame, fear and mistrust that may be holding you back from delighting in your life and in your connections to humans and to the more-than-human world.

Relationships are vital to our health and well-being, yet few of us have been trained how to foster and maintain healthy ones. I support the development of healthy relationship skills by focusing on emotional expression, relational skill development, and personal empowerment. Rekindling the trust, emotional connection, and playful spark necessary for healthy relationship is a process of establishing mutual goals, building new skills of emotional intelligence and embodied communication while healing old wounds. We are always, already in relationship; whether it is a relationship to another person, place, or oneself, we are in some way connected and affected by our surroundings. As such, it is in relationship that our deepest hurts can take place, and it is also in relationship that our most profound and liberating healing can occur. As a therapist, I work side-by-side with you, and it is in our own relationship together that we explore and uncover your greatest strengths, as well as all the ways you may unconsciously hold yourself back. My specialties include working with adults recovering from trauma experienced as a child or an adult. I enjoy working with individuals who are stuck in relationship patterns and are looking to break these patterns. I have expertise working with college students of all ages and people struggling with life transitions. My office is safe and affirming no matter your race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or physical ability.