Therapists for college students near Portland, OR

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who grew up in rural Northern California, where adequate mental health care was not accessible, and differences were not celebrated. I developed a passion for helping others after watching people I cared about struggle without support and going through my own challenges as an adolescent and young adult. After settling in the Portland Metro Area, I have developed a great love of our area's diverse populations and green landscapes, combining all the beauty the Willamette Valley has to offer with the convenience and luxury of inner-city resources and diversity. I have experience working in community mental health, hospice, and counseling with adults and teens ranging from late adolescents to the elderly. I especially enjoy working with those struggling with life transitions, trauma, chronic illnesses, depression, and anxiety. I believe that fostering safety and unconditional positive regard is the backbone of the therapeutic relationship. I use these core Rogerian principles and a strength-based approach along with techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectal Behavioral Therapy, and Existential Therapy to aid people in broadening their perspectives, changing behaviors that are not working for them, and developing practical tools they can use in their day-to-day lives. I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to therapy and am variably directive in my approach depending on client needs. I am honored by those who share their brightest and darkest times with me. Time and time again, I am amazed by the strength and resilience of those who actively seek change. When I am not with clients, I can be found wrangling my two young children. I am a music, gardening, hiking, equine, and canine enthusiast. I also feel passionately about women supporting women and have enjoyed networking with other women in my local community.

We’re a small team of Oregon-based therapists who get how overwhelming and complicated college life can feel. Between classes, relationships, work, and figuring out your future, it’s easy to feel stretched thin or misunderstood. Here, you’ll find a space where your identity is respected, your pace is honored, and your story is taken seriously. We know trust takes time, especially if you’ve felt dismissed or unseen before. That’s why we move at your pace, creating room for the full complexity of what you’re going through—without rushing toward quick fixes. Our approach is trauma-informed, accessible, and affirming — always centering your safety, your voice, and your unique way of being. In this space, you don’t have to perform, explain yourself, or shrink down. You can just show up as you are.

Each member of our collaborative practice operates through a trauma-informed, intersectional lens. We bring different specialties to our work that can help you process trauma, anxiety, depression, life transitions, and offer the support you need in a way that helps you move toward living the life you want.

I specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), an evidence based treatment for specific challenges like OCD, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, and depression. This requires a collaborative and supportive process tailored to each individual. With the right treatment it is possible to see significant changes in symptoms so you can spend more time pursing what is most important to you. I am offering primarily telehealth based appointments within Oregon and in-person appointments within the Portland area as needed. Treatment is focused on creating behavioral changes, starting with areas where symptoms have had the most significant, and negative life-impacts. Focusing on one small change at a time can lead to greater freedom from symptoms, and more time spent actively pursuing what is most important in your life.

I am informal, goofy, sometimes loud, curious, imperfect, and you get all that and more when we start working together. Therapy with me commonly looks like laughing together, sometimes until we cry; actually crying together; laying on the ground; understanding that dark humor is often a necessary coping strategy for whatever life throws at us; talking with my hands; and my facial expressions being apart of the conversation (AKA having real reactions to real shit). Growing up between worlds can get messy, that weird in-between of always trying to fit in. As a transracial/international adoptee, I know how frustrating that pull between cultures and identities can be. Whether you're a fellow adoptee, mixed raced, or 1st gen, we’ll explore those layers - the deep identity stuff, aka the “laugh so you don’t cry” stuff, and find your way back home within the complexity. As a relational, trauma-informed therapist, I believe healing happens through connection. I focus on how your relationships, past and present, shape how you move through the world. My work blends somatic awareness with curiosity and compassion to help you build relationships that feel nourishing, real, and aligned with who you are. Finding the right fit may be time consuming, but shouldn’t be draining. Consults are a brief window into what the therapeutic relationship will look like - like a vibe-check. And if the vibes are right, the hard stuff will come naturally and not feel forced. This is why I offer 25-min consults. Reach out for a consult and let’s take it from there!

My practice is guided by the belief that every person strives to do the best they can. The individual or family system may need assistance in developing necessary skills and guidance in solving problems. Working collaboratively with clients I help them to narrate new ways of interacting with their environment. I work with several young adults / young professionals as they navigate major life transitions (college, grad school, careers, families and parenting) and the accompanying challenges (ie: depression, anxiety, ADHD, isolation, imposter syndrome, challenging relationships, perfectionism). A major part of my practice is helping clients with trauma - esp developmental trauma.

Liberation Institute is a community mental health clinic that offers therapeutic services on a sliding scale. It first opened its doors on October 7, 2008, in San Francisco, then expanded to Portland in June 2020. Between the two locations, Liberation Institute helps 600 individuals, couples, and families a week by a staff of therapists, supervisors, artists, activists, meditation teachers and others who are committed to serving the community together.

Hi, I’m Abby (she/her). I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and EMDR trained Mental Health Therapist based in Portland, Oregon. I’m so glad you’re here because this life is complex! When chaos or stagnation become the norm, accessing collaborative and nonjudgmental support to better understand your unique experience of the world can be pivotal. I’m honored to hold space for deep suffering, as well as celebrations of beauty. I look forward to connecting with you!

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I hope to build a strong working relationship with people and be curious about them. Beyond that, my approach in therapy generally focuses on people’s rich and complex lives. I focus on how people experience and express their emotions, paying particular attention to times when this seems blocked for them. I help people explore life patterns, with an eye on supporting people’s freedom and flexibility. I also pay close attention to the relationships and experiences people have with others, as these shape who we are. Finally, I always consider people’s social context, such as cultural identity, family history, socioeconomic background, education, and experiences of exclusion and inclusion.

I am a 2nd gen, female, Korean-American psychologist practicing in Portland, Oregon. Growing up in a bi-cultural family, I understand the challenges of integrating aspects of culture into our identities and relationships. My hope is to build a warm, authentic, and supportive relationship with my clients to facilitate awareness and a strong sense of self. My psychotherapy style is unique to me. It is collaborative, warm, relational, and open. I integrate my specialized training in child and adolescent development, Gestalt Approaches, and EFT. Currently, I am receiving training in AEDP, which is an experiential approach focusing on using the safety and security of the therapeutic relationship to undo aloneness

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My work is based on Mindfulness, Buddhist Psychology, and Gestalt Therapy. All are adept approaches to increasing awareness of our embodied experience and discovering more authentic ways of living a fulfilling life. My approach works to help clients develop resiliency, emotional flexibility, and explore the careful balance between acceptance and change. I support clients’ process of deepening into a more compassionate and loving relationship with themselves and the world by accepting who they truly are. Simultaneously, I challenge people to examine and move beyond rigid, habitual beliefs or behaviors and develop more alive, creative, and connective ways of being in the world.

As a psychologist, Emily supports people to live richer, fuller lives aligned with their personal values. She views her clients as the experts on themselves and sees her role as their collaborator, working together to help bring forward their greatest potential. Emily works with a diverse set of individuals, and with a variety of concerns such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, trauma, interpersonal relationship challenges, overcoming barriers to goals, and other issues her clients strive to work through. She utilizes an assortment of therapeutic modalities, often blending these approaches, including mindfulness, Jungian analysis, Behavioral Modification, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Ecopsychology, and relaxation training, always with a focus on the individual needs of the client. Emily believes that an integrated approach to overall well-being is important, including aspects of nutrition, exercise, and sleep hygiene, with an understanding of how these interact with and impact psychological well-being. Over the years, Emily has worked with children, adolescents, young adults, and not-so-young adults, each seeking help with a range of concerns, problem behaviors, and disorders. Emily also enjoys working with couples as they address problematic areas in their relationship, and as they find ways to improve and reconnect with each other. When she works with children, she is also working to make sure parents are appropriately involved, and helping to implement therapeutic assignments beyond the counseling environment and at home. This is especially important as we impart positive parenting approaches to reinforce certain behaviors, and to help a child feel secure as they learn to cope with trauma, anxiety, or depression. Emily completed her Bachelor’s of Science degrees in Biopsychology and Ecology and Evolution at University of California, Santa Barbara, later earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology, and a second PhD in Wildlands and Wildlife Conservation at Brigham Young University. When Emily is not engaging with her clients in psychotherapy, she teaches psychology undergraduate college courses, and enjoys hiking, spending time with her family, connecting with nature, and cooking.

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Family Roots Therapy is a group practice that focuses on the mental health needs of families, young children, and parents. We believe that each family has unique needs, and we want to best serve the needs of the entire family. We have multiple therapists with different specialties and can help you find the best fit. Finding the right fit in therapy is important. You should feel heard and understood in therapy. Our therapists' specialties include anxiety, life transition/change, relationships, gender identity, polyamorous relationships, parenting, and postpartum mental health. While we are in-network with some commercial insurance companies, as of November 2021 we only have availability for OHP and direct pay clients. Thank you for your understanding!

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Abri, based in Portland, Oregon, is one of the first psychotherapy clinics worldwide to specialize solely in Radically Open DBT for disorders of over-control - which includes treatment resistant anxiety and depression and restrictive eating disorder. RO DBT can be particularly helpful with students struggling with academic anxiety and crippling perfectionism. Abri has a diverse and dynamic team of 7 clinicians and a registered dietician. Please see our website for clinician bios and sub-specialties.

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Living in a world filled with poverty, marginalization, oppression, and pandemic(s) can feel daunting and lead people to feel as though they have little agency. Therapy can be a helpful place to explore the places in our lives where we do have agency, where we are able to make tangible changes-often times this is in our interpersonal relationships. I work from an attachment focused and relational cultural perspective that is grounded in feminist practice which prioritizes the exploration of identities, oppression, intersectionality, and their impact on social and emotional functioning. I draw upon interventions from psychoanalytic psychotherapy, attachment focused therapy, emotionally focused therapy, radical acceptance, and health at every size. I have experience working with people struggling with issues related to depression, anxiety, life transitions, gender identity, queer issues, and relationship and family challenges. I take a non-pathologizing approach to working my clients, with a particular focus on those have been marginalized by the mental health profession in the past.