What to Expect in Our Work Together

The Therapeutic Process

I often tell people at the beginning that therapy isn’t a straight line. It ebbs and flows, expands and deepens, which means it will look and feel different from session to session. Some days we might find ourselves tapping into memories or patterns that have shaped you, or noticing the protective parts of you that once kept you safe but now feel confining. Other days, we may simply sit with whatever is present. These insights can emerge gradually and gently, sometimes through words, sometimes through silence, sensation, or emotion.

What you can consistently expect in our work together, though, is a gentle, explorative space where we meet whatever arises with warmth, humanness, and non-judgment. However you arrive, whether you're carrying something specific or just a quiet, persistent urge to understand yourself more fully, there is room for it here.

My Personal Philosophy

What guides me at Purnell Counseling is the belief that you are not a problem to be solved, but a person to be understood. We’ll work together in a way that honors your unique story, your rhythms, and the innate wisdom you already carry. My personal philosophy stems from the belief that healing is most effective when approached from a holistic, integrative perspective — one that honors both mind and body and is centered around your voice and needs.

By moving at a pace that meets you where you are, without imposing my own agenda or assuming my view of you is the right one, I create space for you to arrive at insights in your own time and in a way that feels true to you. Healing cannot be forced from the outside and happens most deeply when it comes from within. My role is to be a companion on your journey and to support you by guiding you toward your own healing and lasting understanding.

Guiding Frameworks in Our Sessions

My approach is rooted in psychodynamic therapy, which explores how early relationships and past experiences shape how we think, feel, and relate to ourselves and others in the present moment. Unlike some therapies that focus mainly on symptoms or behaviors, psychodynamic work seeks to look beneath the surface to uncover the deeper patterns and stories that influence our lives. Life often brings us back to these old patterns, but within them lies the opportunity for healing, growth, and new ways of being.

Supporting this foundation, I also draw from Internal Family Systems (IFS) and body-centered practices, which deepen and bolster our work by helping you connect with and hold the different parts of yourself while tuning into the wisdom of your body and nervous system.

• ✺ IFS invites us to get to know the different parts of yourself, not to change or get rid of them, but to understand how they came to be and to honor their stories. This approach holds that we must first listen to these parts and understand their context before transformation becomes possible. That transformation often looks like showing up in new ways, with more choice, clarity, and self-leadership. When we meet these parts with compassion, the inner tension or pain they carry can begin to soften. Every part of you, even the ones you tend to avoid or view as harmful, holds meaning and plays a role in your larger story.
• ✺ Body-centered work helps regulate the nervous system, grounding you in the present and cultivating a sense of safety in your body, especially when words fall short. Many of us are carrying around both conscious and unconscious stress, trauma, or emotional overwhelm not just in our minds, but in our bodies. When the nervous system is dysregulated, it can be harder to reflect, process, or stay connected in therapy and in our lives. Learning how to calm and support the body allows deeper emotional work to unfold more effectively, without shutting down or avoiding.

Together, we’ll hold space for all of you, the parts you know well, and the ones that are just beginning to surface. This work isn’t about perfection, but about integration and making contact with what’s been lost, hidden, or quieted, and creating space for something new to emerge.