“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, ‘No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.’ It’s going to bed at night thinking, ‘Yes I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.’”
Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
About Me – Angela Izmirian
With a strong educational background and a deep passion for helping individuals and couples, I work to collaborate with clients on what isn’t working in their lives and “try on” different ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. With a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Counseling Psychology from the University of Memphis, I hope to bring a diverse set of tools to each client to help them develop into the individual they would like to be.
I specialize in addressing a wide range of issues, including anxiety, depression, and trauma; I also provide multicultural counseling, counseling to support trans or gender non-conforming individuals, and couples counseling. With a compassionate and client-centered approach, I’m committed to helping you find what supports you in living a life that aligns with your values.
MY THERAPeUTIC STYLE
I tend to be interactive in therapy and incorporate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I typically start by building a relationship with my clients, which can include things like learning about their background and sharing a laugh. Then, I explore the strengths and skills that my clients already have in order to put these to good use. In addition, I explore a client’s values, as well as emotions connected to those values. Although emotions can be difficult to verbalize and experience, they can help clarify what’s important to us as well as provide direction. Acceptance of difficult emotions typically leads to a life with less turmoil. Hence, I tend to help clients sit with difficult emotions and learn that sadness, grief, and anxiety are at times just as important as happiness, excitement, and joy.
Many of us have a difficult time showing our “true selves,” be it for a fear of discrimination or a fear of not being accepted. I would like my clients to leave sessions with the confidence to be genuine to themselves, the courage to try out new things (when safe to do so), and the knowledge that, no matter the outcome, there is value in what they will learn from their experiences.
