Patrice Harris (LPC)

Twenty years ago, my life was turned upside down when my husband walked out the door, leaving me to raise our two year old daughter and dreams I thought we had built together since our second year in college. I couldn’t imagine how I could go on. I couldn’t imagine how anyone who’d been though this sort of pain had gone on. But, to my surprise, I did go on, grow, developed new and stronger emotional muscles. And formed a new dream: I wanted everyone to believe they could get there (peace/happiness) from here (pain/anxiety/confusion). So, I went back to school and, with a lot of family help, got this degree that allowed me to begin helping others help themselves. For over 20 years now, I’ve worked with women growing through divorce, adults facing stage of life changes, people of all ages seeking to believe in – or even identify – their strengths, accept and work on their weaknesses. We start by learning to trust each other; we start by trusting the client’s self empowerment (even if the client doesn’t really believe – at first). Then we form a two-person team and reframe negative beliefs, pinpoint resources, figure out distorted thoughts that are holding the client back and need to be abandoned. We do in-session exercises, refer to research and books, and connect dots in belief sets until…we get there from here. And, almost all the time, we do. We will – you and I. Almost no problem is too big such that two people working hand in hand with a sound knowledge base, can’t overcome it. In time, the problem that seems so big today will be a learning experience and a memory. We’ll get you there. Let’s start now.