Dr. Joanna Sargalska-Gelin
Psychotherapy & Assessment for Adults
There are many different reasons why people seek therapy. Chances are something has been bothering you for a while. Maybe you find yourself feeling anxious for no reason. Maybe you are going through a break-up or feeling stuck in a relationship. Perhaps you’ve experienced something extremely stressful and your go-to coping strategies just don’t work. Whatever it is, we can work together to identify sources of stress and pain and to access your strengths to heal and grow.
psychotherapy for individuals
I offer individual psychotherapy services to adults across a range of conditions. Please see below for my areas of specialty. If you have a question about an issue that’s not listed there, feel free to reach out and ask. If for some reason I’m unable to help, I’d be happy to provide you with referrals to other qualified practitioners.
assessment
For existing clients, I offer a limited number of supportive assessment services. This might include ADHD screening, work and/or school disability letters, and others.
Depression
Depressive states are very common and not always obvious. They can start with low motivation, lack of energy, irritable mood and occasionally progress into overwhelming sadness, complete loss of joy and social isolation. The good news is- depression in all it’s forms is treatable and talk therapy has proven to be very effective.
Anxiety
There is so much to feel anxious about in today’s world. At its core, anxiety is very adaptive, designed to protect us from harm. But when chronic and intense, it can make one’s life miserable. Therapy can be extremely useful in teaching us to respond to stress in healthier ways and to harness our anxious energy for something meaningful and productive.
Grief and Loss
Loss is inevitable and often overwhelming. Significant losses can test our value systems and strain our sense of safety. Therapy offers time and space necessary to process the impact of loss on our lives and gives us the support needed to decide how to best move forward.
Infertility and Perinatal Health
A road to becoming a parent is often a rocky one. It requires a great deal of psychological resilience. I have extensive experience supporting women and families in navigating infertility and pregnancy issues. I also have advanced training in perinatal mood disorders, including postpartum depression, and can offer support in deciding what medical and psychological treatment options might be needed.
New Parent Support
I believe there is no such thing as too much support, and this is especially true for new parents. Becoming a parent transforms a person’s identity and despite all its rewards, that process is often fraught with anxiety and self-doubt. I enjoy helping parents navigate the entry into parenthood.
Immigration and Expat Therapy
It is increasingly common to relocate for work, love, or desire for change. From a psychosocial perspective, relocation/immigration can be extremely challenging and isolating, particularly if the new home is culturally different. As an immigrant myself, I am deeply aware of the complexities of adapting to a new culture while preserving a strong sense of self and I enjoy helping clients along on that journey.
How can therapy help?
The exact mechanism of change in psychotherapy is an area of extensive, ongoing study.
However, research has shown repeatedly that most people can benefit from even a few hours of psychotherapy.
Here are some general ideas that clinicians and researchers agree on in terms of therapy benefits:
Greater Awareness/insight - this might seem obvious but if you aren’t aware of what’s driving your feelings and behaviors, you won’t be able to change them. In therapy, we examine in detail what’s on your mind and identify thought patterns, challenging the ones that might be contributing to low mood and unhealthy behaviors.
Emotional knowledge/connection - you’d be surprised how hard it is for many of us to even identify and name our feelings. Understanding our feelings is a crucial step in learning how to regulate them. Therapy helps develop this awareness and increases the ability to comfort and self-soothe oneself and gain a sense of control and self-efficacy. Emotional insight also increases empathy which is essential for building connections with other people.
Therapy also helps connect the intellectual and emotional insight - how thoughts can determine feelings and behaviors. This typically leads to a greater sense of control - knowing that changes in our thinking can improve (or worsen) our mood.
Mental health is closely tied to our relationships - past and present. Our relationship history is a well of knowledge, explaining how we perceive others, what we expect from relationships, and what we feel insecure about. Therapy helps us recognize relationship patterns and consider them from a new perspective. What’s more, we often inevitably re-create relationship patters with the therapist and this provides a unique opportunity to re-experience and transform our feelings and perceptions. The safe and confidential space of therapy is uniquely set up for that.
To sum it up - therapy helps develop crucial intellectual and emotional insight necessary to make behavioral changes. The therapeutic relationship provides the context within which these changes can begin. The relationship part is particularly important. This is likely why many people try therapy after reading self-help books and not feeling much better. To offer a simple analogy- let’s say you’d like to learn how to surf. Reading books about surfing will probably give you a good sense of what it entails but you will not become a surfer until you get in the water and brave the waves.
How can you get the most out of therapy?
Come to every session. With the exception of vacations and emergencies, try to prioritize your therapy. Entering therapy means committing time, energy and money to improve your well-being so try to honor this commitment. Your attendance will also affect your relationship with your therapist and, as I mentioned earlier, the quality of this relationship is a key ingredient in effective therapy.
As much as you can, try not to censor yourself and try to be honest. You don’t need to come prepared with a coherent narrative. You don’t need to impress me or make me laugh (although I do appreciate humor in therapy!) Finding the right words and organizing our thinking is part of the work of therapy.
It might be helpful to occasionally bring some notes or journal entries to therapy or come with a general idea of what you’d like to work on. But don’t worry too much about planning what to say. Spontaneous detours can be very informative and productive and one way or another we will get to where we need to be.
Feel free to give feedback and ask questions. I do my best to listen and understand you but I might occasionally miss something. Letting me know you feel confused or disagree with something I said can be an invaluable part of the therapy process.