About Kathleen

Kathleen Landry MA

LCMHC

I come to the field of counseling after a decade in education, where I worked with both children and adults in a variety of settings. I learned so much about the learning and growth process in that work, but I saw that many of the barriers to learning that people struggled with had a mental health component I wasn’t equipped to address as a teacher. I was drawn to these problems and how to address them. I ended up in a graduate counseling program as a result. In my personal life, I was raising a son as a single mother, and trying to build a stable, secure life for us. I was challenged by the difficulties of co-parenting, hard conversations, economic challenges, work-life balance, and partner finding/ relationship building. I learned and grew so much from that challenging life work. My counseling practice began as my graduate practicum in 2008, and slowly grew out of all that life-learning. Gratefully, I learned and grew from my counseling work as well, and I still do to this day. I’ve come to appreciate my clients as amazing teachers in my life. Currently I balance my work life with Nordic skiing, gardening, walking in the woods, crafts, and spending time with my family, friends, and dogs.

My Clinical Approach

Like every therapist, my clinical approach is informed by my background, areas of study, and experience in life and practice. In all of these realms, my interests have focused on the exploration of human lifespan and brain development, attachment and learning theories, trauma, and relationships. My approach is largely based in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Positive Psychology, although I also have training in somatic psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS), and I am certified in EMDR.

My primary clinical goal is to guide each client in building what I call a “Therapeutic Life.” Based in Positive Psychology, the Therapeutic Life model is a mindset, a lifestyle, and a therapeutic process. Clients evaluate each of the spheres of their life, (health, work, money, relationships, spiritual life, self-care and healing, etc.), using self-knowledge and life experience to identify strengths and needs, and to make a plan for building a whole life around them. Each realm is specifically designed to be therapeutic. Along the way, clients identify barriers to overcome, develop the skills needed to overcome them. Building a therapeutic life is a strengths-based, empowering, constructive, and educational experience. It gives clients a sense of direct and meaningful agency over the quality of their lives and wellbeing. In it, they customize the framework of their life to fit their unique attachment and learning styles, past trauma healing, introversion or extraversion, sensory sensitivities, culture, family constellation, and other individual factors. My approach is for clients who like to be highly engaged, do homework between sessions, and enjoy the learning process.