Skylar employs a psychoanalytic lens in her work. She believes that to understand who you are and how you make sense of your lived experiences, it is essential to look into the past. She observes the relationships people have (with themselves and others), including the relationship she builds with you in therapy. Skylar places importance in facilitating understanding of things unspoken, unconscious desires, and dreamwork. She helps individuals create a capacity for figuring things out together, tolerating uncertainties, eventually arriving at their own decisions and choices.
In sessions with Skylar, you may expect gentleness, honesty, compassionate confrontation, patience, kindness, warmth, respect, and above all, to be treated a a person deserving of care and safety within the therapeutic relationship.
Areas of interest and experience working with adults include issues such as attachment, loss (death and non-death losses), grief, suicidality, self-harm, living with mental illness, identity (personal, sexual, including LGBTQ), trauma and abuse (past and recent) , adverse childhood experiences, substance use, relationships (familial, romantic), major life transitions (career change, living arrangements, re-entering employment).
Her work with children embodies openness and curiosity, allowing for freedom of expression through play and expressive arts, alongside talk therapy where suitable. Extensive experience in working and communicating with children (and their parents) has shaped her approach for child-led, respectful communication within firm boundaries and limits to create a sense of psychological safety. Skylar actively advocates for children and young people, in her efforts to bridge understanding between children and adults. Her experience working in school settings include working with children from diverse backgrounds and issues including blended families, recent loss of family members, impacts of divorce and family separation, volatile home conditions, single parenting, adoption, minor on minor abuse, substance use, children's mental health issues and symptoms, and navigating life transitions (friendships, relocation).
The human experience is complex, and part of growth and recovery is messy and uncomfortable, often requiring a great deal of courage and fortitude. Life can be difficult, yet there is power in reaching out, seeking help in a space dedicated just for you. She looks forward to sitting together with you in hard places, collaboratively creating a space to figure things out, eventually witnessing your growth and resilience.