Meet Jordan, LPC, LMHC
Welcome, I’m Jordan (she/her), a licensed trauma therapist with the desire to support the return of your nervous system, relationships, and emotions to a state of connection.
virtual therapy | CO + WA
virtual therapy | CO + WA
the why behind my work
At this practice, I have felt at home as a therapist, and I hope you can begin to feel at home here too. Whether this is your first time in therapy or you are returning for something new, an unwavering promise I offer to you is a grounded and safe relationship. It is our bond - and other therapy modalities tailored to your needs - that is the backbone to understanding, unlearning and learning, as well as growth.
People do not work, create, and love in isolation, so why should healing be any different? This is the practice for you if you are seeking connection: to yourself, to others, to your emotions, to your body, and to purpose.
As a child, I wanted to be an author. As a teen, I wanted to be a journalist. As an adult, I recognized these "wants" were about bearing witness to stories as well as creating them. Therapy with me will hold room for both: being heard, and becoming. Whatever your story may be, I am eager to stand beside you.
Together we will learn to bear the weight of trauma by feeling safely present in your body, mind, relationships, and the quiet joys of every day.
Support for those asking “why?” and “what now?”
Many clients who land here are those trying to find or reclaim their right to recognition. Childhood trauma ties us to a one dimensional identity, often that of “The Problem” or “The Solution”. These identities often map onto attachment styles too.
Those who were seen as “The Problem” feel that their needs are ‘too much’ or not worthy, and therefore have learned to move through the world quietly, trusting selectively or not at all because caregivers were unreliable or minimizing. Understanding or expressing what one is feeling is foreign, unsafe, or pointless because others have taught us to be small or invisible.
Those who were seen as “The Solution” often feel as if they ‘grew up too fast’. Caregivers relied upon them to take care of themselves as well as people around them, and validation only came as a result of doing for other people. The adulthood experience for children praised for their caretaking is often the tendency to people-please, and fear that one will be abandoned if they aren’t what others expect them to be.
The reality is many of us also fall somewhere in the middle, because how we cope with unfulfilled needs and failed connection is not static. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, I promise to meet you where you are at and centralize your worth at all times. Through the repairing therapeutic relationship, we learn to shed the label of “The Problem” or “The Solution” and create a sense of self on our own terms.
specialties
Childhood Trauma • Emotional Neglect • Attachment Wounding • Abusive Relationships • Sexual Trauma • Grief • Caregiver Burnout • People Pleasing • Intrusive Thoughts • Children of Narcissists • Therapy for Friends• Older Adults
returning to balance
returning to balance
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our connection comes first
In a therapy room, it is likely you may offer the most raw, vulnerable, or unguarded version of yourself possible. That deserves to be met with human warmth and emotional responses you can palpably feel, hear, and see. I will not be a blank slate, someone that merely asks How was your week, or someone who speaks down to you as an ‘expert’. I see the therapist’s role as an honest, gentle but firm, and communicative mirror: I will reflect witnessed body language, communication patterns, and emotions you evoke within me to support your own attunement to yourself.
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past and present focus
Our work will offer opportunities to explore the relationship between your past and the present, as well as room to craft the story of who you would like to evolve into. I use an attachment focused lens to explore how relationships with caretakers and your culture in childhood contributed to how you connect with others in your life today.
Understanding how and why we bonded with these early figures offers us insight into why vulnerability and closeness may feel difficult or overwhelming in the here and now. We will notice together how these learned patterns show up in our own therapeutic relationship and introduce to your nervous system a safe, secure, and non-shaming form of connection to trust.
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Body, Mind and Emotional Involvement
We are often told to “just let go” or “change your attitude” about hardship we experience. While challenging and expanding our thoughts about events is often necessary, we cannot experience healing without the involvement of our feelings or our bodies also. I bring this to life in the room with frequent encouragement to slow down, notice sensations inside your body, and label emotion within those sensations.
As we develop this practice of pausing, we teach our bodies how to stay centered when stress arises, and we also learn how to fulfill the needs our emotions hold.
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no bad parts
A phrase that circulates in the therapy world that irks me is “maladaptive coping mechanism”. While it is legitimate, and sometimes life saving, to acknowledge that some coping mechanisms are not sustainable or no longer serve us as they used to, we deepen shame and the likelihood of old defenses continuing if we do not honor where they came from and the function they are trying to offer. Therefore, I recognize any way you self-soothe as a protection developed against a stressor in a time of need.
Together we will compassionately identify what purposes our protections hold, and develop new protections to stressors if old ones you relied upon are no longer age appropriate, in alignment with your values, or create disconnection.
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Growth that follows you outside of therapy
It is meaningful to experience ‘light bulb moments’ or emotional releases in the therapy room, and it is especially meaningful when we begin to carry self-awareness learned inside the therapy space outside of the therapy space. I support client development of self-regulation tools, introspection practices, and communication patterns that can be used with me in the therapeutic alliance and used on your own or with others in your daily life.
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Building presence, clarity, & connection
With tenderness, humor, and acceptance, we will explore how trauma disrupts aspects of your wellbeing: your self perception, your trust in and communication with other. And discover and cultivate: a sense of ease in your body, actions that align with your core values, harmony and a sense of control over your emotions and thoughts.
A lack of these things looks like depression, anxiety, hopelessness, disassociation, chronic pain, and disconnect within ourselves and with loved ones. Return to - or discovery of - peace, regulation, and connectedness is the orienting north star of therapy with me.
Somatic, relational therapies I offer:
Beyond The Therapy Room | Paddle boarding, trying new recipes with friends and family, reading and writing are what I reach for most often in my free time.
Beyond The Therapy Room | After 9 years spent in Texas and Colorado for graduate and post graduate work, I returned to Washington: my home of homes.
Beyond The Therapy Room | To deepen my relationship with Washington, I co-lead mindfulness retreats at The Salish Sea School in Anacortes.
Beyond The Therapy Room | Aside from loving relationships, yoga and Daoism are also pillars of my life that offer me steadiness and perspective.
Education, Licensure, and Advanced Training
education
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Southern Methodist University
Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, University of Denver
Licensure
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Colorado
Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Washington
Advanced Training
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
Parts Work Therapy and IFS
Somatic Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
curiosity is always welcome here
Frequently Asked Questions | Working with Jordan
Therapy asks for a deep offering of your time, energy, money, and vulnerability, so I firmly believe in tailoring the experience together as we go to reflect your investment. I joke with my therapist that I had to “date” others before finding her: these questions are here to support your initial discovery process.
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Many of us are familiar with what is sometimes nicknamed the “Big T” definition of trauma: “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”. This definition comes from the clinical psychologist and therapist’s guidebook for diagnosis and treatment called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5). While this definition offers us a foundation to understand and codify trauma, it is incomplete. There are a multitude of other painful, isolating, and disruptive occurrences in our life that can impact our minds and bodies just as significantly, or more so, than the trauma that fits the DSM definition.
I consider trauma to be anything - ongoing or one time, circumstance or relationship - that has a negative impact on the fabric of who we are and how we see the world. This includes:
Neglectful or emotionally immature parents
Narcissistic caregivers and partners
Chronic disconnection in romantic partnerships
Bullying
Caregiver burnout
Religion that dictates our value systems or imposes judgement
Isolation related to being “different”: neurodivergence, intellectual and developmental disorders, depression and anxiety
Body toxicity, diet culture, and disordered eating
Our sessions will also offer us the space to define what trauma means to you - your language and how you understand your experiences drives the direction, pace, and intentions of our work.
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I believe the therapist-client relationship is more like alchemy than an equation: you do not have to be a certain type of person to find harmony with me as a therapist. However, while all therapies have similar destinations, the roads to arrive there can vary greatly. The road I like to travel with clients feels collaborative, present, past, and future oriented, non-judgemental, and engages the body. I use a blend of AEDP, Parts Work, attachment focused and somatic focused intervention to guide us. Here is a snapshot of each:
IFS/Parts Work: Does it ever feel like there’s competing voices or feelings inside your head? You’re not “crazy”- there are. These are our parts: different versions of ourselves that were developed at various points in our life to help us survive, motivate us, or gain connection. Parts Work helps us label these parts, understand their functions, and allow communication between these parts. Folks often report that Parts Work helps them feel more “organized” inside and can minimize shame or confusion about having conflicting emotions.
AEDP: A model that validates and recognizes the ways you have learned to cope with pain - including communication style, fight or flight responses, self-talk, addictions. With regulation and compassion, we will move behind these protective walls to find deeper emotions (such as anger, sadness, joy and disgust) that trauma blocks, and learn how to tend to and communicate the unmet needs these emotions hold.
Attachment-focused: How our caregivers met our needs, or failed to, creates a blueprint for how we approach relationships as we age. Together we will explore how our early experiences impacted our ability to trust, communicate, and receive feedback, while also rewiring our brain to allow for a sense of safety in relationships.
Somatic-focused: Using moment by moment tracking to create awareness of waves of regulation and dysregulation in your body, and developing tools to return us to a state of equilibrium when we are triggered.
If you are uncertain about the approaches above, I encourage you to keep the door open. We just may spend more time understanding how your mind approaches healing and connection and co-create a style of therapy that blends my approaches and your own needs.
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Such good questions…. and ones that I often meet with questions of my own:
How do you define “good" therapy? What changes in your relationships, thoughts, responses to emotions, and your body would tell you that something is different in a meaningful way?
If we define “good therapy” as a space to resolve a crisis, therapy will last as long as it takes us to resolve the issue immediately in front of us. If our definition of therapy is more expansive than crisis resolution (i.e. “to work on ongoing attachment wounds”, “to keep my depression in check”) therapy can be a lifelong endeavor.
The type of therapeutic modalities I practice ask us to explore emotions and response patterns that may have been with us our entire lives: understanding and responding to your nuance and complexity is best served in a longer term setting, not just 1-8 sessions. Many clients I see begin with weekly sessions for a few months, and then may drop to every other week as they feel more steady holding life’s discomfort on their own. About ⅓ of clients on my caseload have been with me for several years, using our space to revisit what initially brought them to therapy and also addressing new challenges that arise.
The short answer to bear in mind: therapy is voluntary from the moment you reach out for a consultation: you can stop at any time, on your terms. I work diligently to create a space where it is safe to share feedback too- if something is feeling off or if you have questions about where we are headed, I welcome those in any session.
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The modalities I use model and practice immediate reflection and awareness: sensation tracking, communicating about the therapist-client relationship, and noticing what parts are present. That being said, I believe it is possible to feel something new and different as early as the first session.
As for deeper unlearning of fixed patterns, that can take more time- and neuroscience explains why: trauma creates entrenched underactivation or hyperactivation of our nervous system, so much so that our fight or flight system responds to stimuli even if there is no true threat. Healing in therapy translates to rewiring our nervous system, which is not an overnight feat.
I believe therapy should balance attuning to the hurt and to the good/neutral. While broader change within our nervous system and attachment style can take multiple sessions to evolve, I like to draw attention to small shifts as soon as I see them emerge (i.e. “You took a breath before talking about your shame instead of the shame taking over immediately. What’s that like to notice?) Doing so in the therapy room empowers us to notice shifts in our external world too, eroding the belief “Things will always be this way”.
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While it would be foolish to say everyone’s experiences of pain shape them in the same way, trauma does create similar patterns across the board: a persistent sense that I am “wrong”, “not whole”, “off”, or “different”; the feeling our body acts against our will; hopelessness or uncertainty about whether connection with ourselves or others will ever feel safe, natural, or possible.
Underlying our various responses to pain are also similar yearnings: to feel less isolated, to feel understood, to feel accepted, to feel a union between our body and our mind, to again feel like “ourselves”.
I selectively interweave my personal therapy experiences and reflections as well as psychoeducation to normalize what you are feeling and to remind you you are certainly not alone.
