Category: Therapy

I am a year and a half into practicing as a therapist, and just month’s into a Master’s degree, but I’m no stranger to therapy from the other side of the room. My father died when I was six, and I’ve spent my life leaning into the supportive space of therapists, each one offering something unique. One played chess with me as we talked about death at eight years old. Another gave me the gift of letting me spill the contents of my over-crowded mind at sixteen. Another, at nineteen, at the end of each session, would gently and sweetly ask what I’d like to leave behind for her to hold. Now, I feel such regard for my therapist, she is like an auntie–a person I can rely on to imbue such trust in me, I cannot help but learn more for myself. Read more

Gemma Baumer

Gemma Baumer graduated with a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from Lewis & Clark College in 2020. She completed her internship with the M.E.T.A. counseling center, through the Hakomi Institute, learning about mindfulness-based therapy and experiential, somatic and process work. She currently works at Live True Counseling, in SW Portland, where she specializes in working with individuals and intimate partners around processing trauma, attachment, anxiety, and general growth work and meaning. She is also a passionate writer, and curates the blog for EHNW, where she loves writing and exploring the world through an Existential-Humanistic framework.

www.livetruecounseling.com/therapists/gemma-baumer

Everything is changing.

COVID-19 has only been circulating for a couple of months now, but it stands to change the way that people live all over the world.  We have arrived at life in the time of COVID-19. People are having to change the way they work, the way they socialize, often their whole life. Change is something that most people have difficulty with anyway, but how do you cope with SO much change in so little time. Here are 5 things you can do today and keep doing to make it through this tough time. Read more

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas loves seeing clients as a therapist at Live True Counseling; believing every day she gets to explore someone’s life with them is a privilege. When not in the office, she can be found snuggled up on the couch of her tiny house with her pets, tending her garden or reading a good book in a coffee shop. On sunny days she loves to take in all the natural shades of her favorite color green, exploring beautiful Oregon.

www.livetruecounseling.com/therapists/emily-thomas

On Screen Bad Therapy Experiences

Have you ever noticed that every mental health professional in movies is the weirdest, most messed up character in the entire thing? The kind gentle therapist who suddenly starts screaming at his clients. The seemingly “normal” therapist who soon reveals that she believes every problem to be related to sex. The therapist who crosses all boundaries and ends up being more of a help-seeking friend than a help-giving therapist. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve been watching something and thought, “yikes, that is a messed up therapist, and that is a very bad therapy experience.” Of course, these portrayals are primarily to add to the dramatic nature of the shows and movies they are part of, but I can’t help but think this has given the whole profession sort of a bad rap. If I wasn’t a therapist, and I had seen any one of these movies/shows, you could count on me to never share anything vulnerable with a counselor, let alone go anywhere near a therapist’s office. Read more

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas loves seeing clients as a therapist at Live True Counseling; believing every day she gets to explore someone’s life with them is a privilege. When not in the office, she can be found snuggled up on the couch of her tiny house with her pets, tending her garden or reading a good book in a coffee shop. On sunny days she loves to take in all the natural shades of her favorite color green, exploring beautiful Oregon.

www.livetruecounseling.com/therapists/emily-thomas

I’m funny. At least, I think I am. I remember being funny when I was a kid. My older sister and I used to lie down in the hallway in our house when we were young (and bored) and I could make her laugh until she was crying without even tickling her. We were gifted a tape recorder once when we were young, which resulted in an entire afternoon of howling laughter. I remember that we recorded ourselves telling each other knock-knock jokes. One of the jokes went like this:

            Knock knock.
            Who’s there?

            Burton.

            Burton who?

            Burton up your overcoat!

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Jenny Larson

Jenny Larson loves her work as a therapist at Live True Counseling and as a Volunteer Counselor at William Temple House. When not seeing clients, she can be found reading psychology books and celebrity memoirs, watching bad (good) 80s movies, and sewing or baking. While self-identified as a cat person, she also has a fondness for dogs and other animals.

www.livetruecounseling.com/therapists/jenny-larson