Therapy is about you.
This is a time to focus on what matters most to you, to jump into the arena so you can tend to the pain and remember what brings you joy.
Your situation is unique and deserves focus and attention.
No one comes to therapy because everything is going great. Something has brought things to a head and it is time to turn towards the challenge and give it some love.
It is not time for a one-size-fits-all approach.
Therapy is about supporting you to make meaningful, positive, life-change.
Life-change involves addressing emotional hurt. It means finally removing the emotional splinters stuck in your heart with love and care…and often humor!
Human emotional pain can be all varieties of excruciating: dull, constant, melancholy ache, the incessant thump of worry, old thoughts that wont leave you alone, the agony of a heartbreak, or a repeating fight with the person you love that simply cannot keep happening.
Dreams and hopes are hard to hold onto when the pain keeps returning.
It means you survive but cannot thrive.
Thriving happens when you see old pain from a new perspective, find tools to lovingly attend to it, and put your relationship to yourself and what matters most to you front and center.
Transformation comes from creative personal solutions, tools that are crafted and applied so that you can address problems that seemed unconquerable before. It comes from knowing yourself at new levels of authenicity.
Transformation starts when the inner voice has a nurturing home.
Therapy is about connecting.
When you are detached from people, intuition, and relationship, everything is a question without an answer. Motivations, and purpose are foggy, the path forward looks dark.
How can connecting shed light on the matter? Because a good therapist brings new perspectives and a sacred space for you to challenge yourself.
When you talk to me, even in the first consultation, it is my job to let you know I really hear you and what you want to transform. The goal is that you feel seen, believed, and able to try new approaches. You have experienced companion on your journey. It is my job to challenge you with love and offer new perspective based on my training and experience.
If there is one thing we need in this world right now, it is transformation that brings us into deeper connection with ourselves and our surroundings.
The more people feel connected to themselves, their families, community and world, the more space there is to make positive transformation.
Therapy is an unflinching ally by your side.
In therapy you are no longer alone.
As you see the present situation in a new way, someone else sees it with you.
As you journey into peace and acceptance with what is, you gain strength to shift what no longer serves you. And each time you move forward or stumble along the way, someone is there, not judging.
You are accepted 100%.
The mission of Growing Life Therapy is to provide care that transcends expectations.
Growing Life Therapy is a labor of love, created to be a place for compassionate care of the mind, spirit, and emotions of the modern human.
It is my way of taking part in the transformation to conscious care that will make this world a more loving place in which to thrive.
This is mental healthcare that:
- Doesn’t have to define you as sick (because insurance companies don’t pay me, you do!)
- Has a focus on love and joy…. and other feelings
- Pays attention to strengths as well as heartache
- Takes the time (sessions are 60-90 minutes, no 50 minute hours)
- Hears and remembers you in the context of the world around you. This therapy acknowledges the impacts of racism, sexism, and other isms and their impact on personal mental health.
- Believes in your inner wisdom and your internal resources
17 years and counting of counseling people facing the struggles of life. And I still love my job.
About Alice O’Keefe, LMFT
It is my passion to support meaningful change-making conversations in private and safe spaces.
I am a licensed Marriage and Family therapist in Oregon and California. I came of age in Washington DC and Sri Lanka and lived in Switzerland, France, Spain and the UK along the way. I have a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology, from Antioch University in Santa Barbara, CA. In graduate training, I focused on learning how to provide culturally competent therapy for grief counseling, adolescent and adult psychotherapy. My undergraduate study was at St. John’s College, in Santa Fe New Mexico where I studied philosophy.
After finishing school, I worked as a therapist in Truckee, CA, gaining experience walking alongside people with diverse challenges: kids and adults recovering from abuse and violence, coping with depression, crippling anxiety, discrimination due to race, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, as well as ranges of trauma, addiction, grief, relationship breakdowns.
As I grew as a therapist, I fell in love with the study of love and attachment, and was fortunate to be exposed to Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). I utilize this as the foundation of my work with couples and families. I continue to pursue additional training and learning in the field of emotional wellness, as it is continually developing and evolving. I love supporting people in moving through their grief, life changes, grief, and family struggles. I utilize aspects of Expressive Arts Therapy, as well as brain-based deep processing through BrainSpotting. I have experience in yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, and the creation personal ceremony. The goal is to support you in finding your true and healthful path.
I have worked deep within the traditional mental health systems and learned what I did and didn’t like about how mental health is managed, how to do things a little differently, and help people really shift their lives.
The therapy I offer is designed to create real momentum for positive change and it works best for people ready to commit time outside of session to improve their lives.
I don’t do it all. I make it my mission to maintain a quality list of excellent referrals for other therapists, bodyworkers, and healers that will support you in your process.
I am not some guru therapist who has all parts of life figured out. I’m a mother and a wife and a fellow traveler on the journey, learning to be a better person, ally and member of society. When needed, I walk the path of a therapy client myself, so I know what it is like to sit where you are. We are all sharing in the human experience.
My family and I have recently moved back to the California Central Coast from Bend, Oregon. When not working or mothering, I feed my soul through beach time, gardening, camping, meditation, collaging and painting. I am also continually learning and unlearning in an effort to participate in making a more peaceful, loving, just, and ecologically conscious world. As a person of privilege I view it as my responsibility to advocate for and support that process in myself and others.
I offer you my experience and skills with an open heart.
Feeling some momentum for change?
If you like what you are seeing, have questions, want to get going, I am here for a 20-minute free consultation.
This is your time, so take action!
Making the call is what gets this all going.