The space to feel and express your feelings without judgement and without the infliction of guilt or shame.
At Hope Merchant Counseling there are no bad parts of you.
There are many of kinds of therapy in the world, and they are not all created equal.
Some are wonderful and life-changing and some are what we call band-aid therapy. Band-aid therapy offers surface level processing, doesn't get to the root of the matter, and often doesn't go beyond the brain. While there may be initial relief (the equivalent of antibiotic ointment and a band-aid if you will), it is likely that the presenting issue will resurface down the road through lived experience, an environmental trigger, etc. In other words, the figurative band-aid is ripped off to reveal a festering wound that didn't get the continued attention it needed for true healing.
Hope Merchant Counseling is different.
At Hope Merchant Counseling, you're going to work with a therapist who sees you.
A therapist with a big-ass tool kit to help you access all parts of yourself.
A therapist who wants to know more, who will push you more, who wants more for you.
At HMC you'll be challenged, and you'll also be supported and encouraged. You'll have space to explore the why and how of who you are. The space to feel and express your feelings without judgement and without the infliction of guilt or shame. Rather, there is freedom, hope, and healing (beyond the band-aid).
If hope, healing, and change is what you're looking for, you've found your place.
Meat The Team
Jean Ricks-Ayer, LPC (She/Her)
Jean is a queer-identifying, licensed professional counselor and holistic healing practitioner, who believes in equitable human rights for all. She holds strongly, that we are all so much more than our brain, and that an integrative, holistic, and embodied approach is the pathway to self-awareness, understanding, growth, and healing.
Greg Tissi, LPC (He/Him)
is a licensed professional counselor and an advocate for queer, trans, and Black lives, and a supporter of equity and human rights for all. In a safe and supportive atmosphere, Greg offers a highly personalized, integrative approach, tailored to the individual needs of each client. He believes strongly that cognitive and behavioral changes alone do not promote true, long-lasting change.
Andrew Shapiro, LPC (He/Him)
Andrew is a licensed professional counselor and Certified Harm Reduction Specialist who works with adolescents, individuals, couples, and families to address trauma, resolve conflicts, and foster growth within individual and family systems. Trained in the Gottman method, he has extensive experience in addiction, substance misuse, and harm reduction.
Here, you will find:
Holistic, Trauma Informed Care
Hope Merchant Counseling is committed to holistic, trauma informed care. This means we go beyond your thoughts and check in with all parts of you. This may include your nervous system, your somatic experience, your body language and many other parts of you within your window of tolerance. It may also mean revisiting early childhood experiences and attachment injuries. Whatever it may be, it will be on your terms and always with your consent. We commit to honoring and respecting your boundaries to keep you feeling safe, and will never push you to do or say anything you're not comfortable with.
An Integrative Approach
Your session will include talking, yes. It may also involve play. Or drawing. Or writing. It may include parts work or somatic experiencing. There may be breathing, visualizing, or stretching. Maybe all of those things. Each therapist at HMC has their preferred method of a trauma informed approach and each person is different. Sometimes, each session is different. Therapy is not one-size-fits-all and should not be cookie cutter. You are not made from a cookie cutter. You are unique and your experience with us will be too.
Safe Space
If you are human, you are welcome. All of your thoughts, feelings, perspectives, and experiences are welcome here. Everyone carries shame, trauma, fears and concerns—all of that is safe at Hope Merchant Counseling. You are free to be YOU; messy, complicated, weird, whatever. No matter race, gender, orientation(s), faith, all ways are welcome.