Sheehan Byrne

Have you tried everything but therapy? I get it. Truly. Things can be incredibly difficult in our lives and the urge to white-knuckle it or pull ourselves up by our bootstraps is powerful. If being hard on yourself worked, it would’ve worked by now. Have you been feeling like no matter what you try to tell yourself, you can’t stop feeling anxious? No matter how many episodes of The Office or New Girl you watch you can’t get out of bed? Are you being led by your schedule without taking any time to reflect on your life and what matters to you? How is your self image? Is it realistic or distorted? Do you know where to start or how to stop? Are you frustrated at the never-ending draws on your attention? How do you treat yourself when you come up short? Is it difficult to focus on what is important to you? Is finding meaning or purpose challenging? Can you live with this much grief? Will the pain go away? Can you change the way you view yourself? Are you tired of trying to figure it all out alone?

I'm not immune to these thoughts or the habit of trying to force myself through my struggles. I’ve asked myself many of these same questions. I’m offering you my time and experience to walk with you as a guide as you find the answers to these questions yourself. I have been in the field of social work for over a decade where my focus for the first 8 years of my career was in hospice. I would sit with patients and families as they confronted death, loss, grief, financial strain, hope, joy, and change in people who were convinced that you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks. I’ve worked with veterans, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, students, lawyers, doctors, and retirees who have had to ask themselves these same questions. The roles and jobs didn’t matter when we got down to the difficult business of making friends with ourselves. No matter how hard these questions are to ask – and most times they are even harder to answer – they are always worth exploring.

The truth of therapy is that most of the change occurs outside of the sessions. You must be willing to do the labor of noticing and paying attention to your thoughts, questioning them, disagreeing with them, or radically accepting them as they are. You have to learn to feel your body and its reactions to both positive and negative situations. You have to watch your behavior and question in the moment if it is serving you. That is work that I can't do for you, but I will work with you by providing you tools and training that I have learned in both my professional and personal life.

There is no instruction manual or one-size-fits-all method. What I utilize is a bespoke approach, tailored to your specific circumstances, learning style, and level of comfort. I use evidence-based techniques and interventions to make therapy as accessible and focused on you as possible. I focus on mindfulness, values, and committed action to move you in the direction that you want to go. I can't guarantee success. Nobody can. What I can guarantee is that working with an objective party whose only focus is joining you on the path towards a more stable, peaceful, and content future is the best way forward, through, and beyond your valley.