Marriage and Family Therapy
The thing that gets you back on your feet could be sitting down with someone who cares.
Welcome to Patricia (Tricia) Ellis-Christensen Psychotherapy.
Life's issues may be able to use empathy, understanding and partnership. As we go along, you get to define what you need from therapy. How can I help you? That's a question for us both to decide. And as we go along we will be working toward you having a more authentic, brave, and engaging life. My integrative approach, my respect for you, and my emphasis on creating a relationship with you offers a safe space for you and I to tackle life's challenges together. Some of the issues I handle in my practice include:
Anxiety
Mood Disorders (Bipolar, Depression and Schizoaffective) and Other Persistent Mental Illnesses
Couples, Relationship and Family issues (alone or in couples counseling)
Life transitions
Grief
Trauma
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I am happy to offer therapy to Sonoma County Beacon Partnership Members and I also offer private pay sessions at $150 with a sliding scale. I am anticipating being able to work with Medicare B clients in the next few months. I work online with any California residents and in my office (as Covid permits).
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Get to Know Me
I've been a Bay Area resident all my life, and have raised my kids here and enjoyed the advantages and the challenges of our special corner of the world. Although I didn't chose my life's work until midlife, all my work has centered around being kind, listening, and having respect for others.
I favor psychotherapy schools that reflect this and that seem to effectively, logically and emotionally define the way people see the world. I am an integrative therapist, too, tailoring my approach to what each person seems most to need. I also know any theory is only as good as the strong bonds we form, and those, more than anything, produce real change.
Even though I like to work with individuals with a broad range of concerns, I have a few specialty areas. As a marriage or couples counselor I have done extra training in developmental couple therapy, and I pull from Dan Wile’s work, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Pyschodynamic therapy, ACT for Couples, and Imago. I also do some work with young adults dealing with a much more complex world emotionally and financially than in the past. I can support families through the process of helping young adults find their way and negotiate the changing relationships between parents and adult children that remain living together.
Since beginning my career, I have been profoundly interested in counseling individuals with bipolar disorder or their families. I offer an onboarding experience for those newly diagnosed or help clients who have dealt with the issue for years and still find themselves challenged. Those with other mood disorders also seek my services based on this experience. I believe ongoing therapy is exceptionally important for optimum stabilization, and that a pscyhodynamic or existential approach with behavioral support can change how people perceive themselves around a mood disorder. Depth work with stabilized clients can also provide greater long term illness management, and long term relationships creates a relational team that cuts the loneliness of stigma and supports any times when mood disorders are most active.
Most important in my psychotherapy work is creating great relationships with the people I treat. If we trust each other, there's so much more we can accomplish. I embody respect for building these relationships in my Santa Rosa psychotherapy practice by creating a warm, honest, and accepting relationship with each person I meet.
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