Natalia Schuermann

Women looking for support with living with a specific mental health issue; adverse childhood experiences; burnout and a decline in job satisfaction; immigrant experiences; sexuality and gender; family-of-origin challenges; transitions and those who just want to talk  “just because”, work with me to gain insight or discernment, coping skills and to have an objective and attentive listening ear.

 

My education in mental health counseling at William and Mary has trained me to be able to build psychologically safe relationships with my clients; advocate for their needs; support and encourage their independence and/or collaboration; and support them by helping them identify and implement skills and resources to decrease or eliminate psychological distress that affects relationships, mood, behaviour and daily functioning.

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We'll use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT), attachment theory, solution-focused, and person-centered psychotherapy and strategies to increase emotion regulation, assertiveness; stabilize mood; improve relationships; replace cognitive errors for behavior change; resolve trauma to decrease/eliminate anxiety, depression, PTSD etc. My therapeutic process begins with the administering of a diagnostic assessment and treatment planning to provide us with measurable and tangible things to work on and building rapport to ensure we trust each other can talk candidly.

 

I create a therapeutic environment for my clients to meet and reconnect parts of themselves they may have disavowed due to shame, criticism, illness, fear and painful experiences and experiment with styles of relating to themselves in ways that have felt beyond reach. I help clients move toward emotional and physical safety, radical acceptance; having a sense of empowerment, choice, and control; skill building; mood regulation; boundary setting; interpersonal effectiveness; trauma resolution and/or management and more. Until you are safe within yourself, you'll react and internalize everything and that is exhausting.

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I collaborate with my clients to create a therapeutic environment and relationship to explore difficulties and discomforts, to have candid conversations, brainstorm potential solutions, reflect on alternatives, negotiate the goals for therapy and decide on a pathway–that can be tweaked over and over– to reach them. I listen and communicate objectively and invite each client to voice different opinions, concerns, curiosity, questions, and ideas about the direction of our work together. I’ll check in with you “how did that feel? What is working or not working?” I’ll sometimes offer a thoughtful challenge if I notice inconsistencies. For example, “you mentioned that your relationship is fraught with toxicity. Tell me more about why you chose to hang out with her last night?” This will allow us to explore internal conflict or push you out of continuing on with things that are unpleasant yet comfortable.