Samara Counseling Services

 At Samara Counseling, I work with people who feel disconnected -- from themselves, from their bodies, from others, or sometimes even from the natural world around them.

Much of my clinical work has focused on supporting individuals living with severe depression, trauma, and dissociation. These experiences can leave people feeling fragmented, numb, or cut off from parts of themselves that once felt alive. Healing often begins with gently rebuilding connection—to your emotions, your body, your story, and your sense of meaning.

My approach to therapy is integrative and relational. I draw on evidence-based methods including EMDR, somatic therapies, and ego-state work to help people safely process trauma and integrate the different parts of their experience. This work is collaborative and paced carefully, always centered on helping you regain a sense of stability, agency and wholeness.

Nature also plays an important role in my work. Many people who feel disconnected internally also describe a quiet disconnection from the natural world. Nature therapy offers a powerful pathway back to presence and regulation. Spending time outdoors, slowing down, and engaging the senses can help restore a sense of grounding and belonging. In many ways, healing resembles the way ecosystems repair themselves -- through reconnection, balance and supportive relationships.

For clients who are interested, I also offer animal-assisted therapy with my certified therapy dog, creating another gentle and supportive way to foster safety, connection and emotional regulation.

I founded Samara Counseling to offer a form of psychotherapy that honors the whole person -- mind, body, emotions, relationships and our place within the natural world. My goal is to provide thoughtful, compassionate care grounded in clinical best practices while remaining flexible enough to meet each person’s unique path toward healing.

If you are feeling disconnected or overwhelmed, you do not have to navigate that experience alone. Therapy can be a place where reconnection begins.

Individual or family therapy located in outdoor settings.   My office is located near the trails of Whitnall Park and Boerner Botanical Gardens.  I am available to meet you in other outdoor spaces, based on your preference.