Counseling
The loss of a loved one, job changes, failing relationships, or an inescapable sense of dissatisfaction with our lives can make us feel pain, lose control and feel despair. These instances can also open the door to the exploration of our souls, and foster opportunities for personal growth and transformation.
Counseling provides a safe place to explore your heart. The therapeutic relationship can help you think through patterns and attitudes that keep you from living your life fully.
I work with individuals experiencing:
- Pain due to life transitions, losses and grief.
- Depression and anxiety.
- Complex post traumatic stress (PTSD) due to sexual abuse, domestic violence, or other traumatic experiences.
- Stress stemming from cross-cultural relationships and adjustments to a new country.
- Issues around identity and purpose in life.
I use a feminist approach, rooted in existential therapy and psychoanalytical foundations. I am also trained in Lifespan Integration, and I am currently incorporating singing technique to the treatment of anxiety and trauma.
Email me or call me to make an appointment.
You can download here the forms for your first session.
My office is located at Seattle Therapy Alliance
200 1st Ave West, Suite #400
Seattle WA 98119 (get directions)
[p] 206.399.0940
[e] info@mariajosesoerens.com
Cross-cultural Counseling
Immigration from one country to another can be a complex process with significant effects in one’s heart. Leaving our home country involves profound losses; the places where we used to play, the cafe where we met our first love, the foods we used to eat, the music we used to dance are now part of memories past… However, alongside with these losses there is also a new opportunity for self-exploration and rediscovery of who we are.
In the search of who we are in this new country, counseling can provide a safe space to integrate our past and present stories into profound growth of our selves.
I work in Spanish and English with individuals, couples, and groups, especially those who have recently moved to the United States leaving home behind, and first generation adolescents.
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“Only the misfortune of exile can provide the in-depth understanding and the overview into the realities of the world.”–Stefan Zweig
| “I am two. One looks back, the other turns to the sea. The nape of my neck seethes with good-byes and my breast with yearning” -Gabriela Mistral |
“And when I arrived he said: ‘Don’t say, brother, that you departed. You will not depart, brother Though you may leave.” – Rodrigo Diaz-Perez |