About
Let’s Be Real for a Minute…
No one wants this kind of therapy – it’s that they need this kind of therapy.
Usually, people try everything possible to heal from their past and move forward with their life. Talking to friends didn’t quite cut it because they either don’t get it or don’t know the full picture. Reading books and watching videos only got you so far.
There were even other therapists who you thought might be helpful – but that was a bust. Either you didn’t stick it out with them, or it felt like you weren’t getting anywhere.
But This Isn’t What You Might Think It Is
Most people think they need to tell me every detail of whatever happened to them. But who wants to do that? The good news is that you don’t have to say all the details to me, but you can if you wish.
Getting better from a painful past isn’t about rehashing all the details. It’s about understanding how your history affected your brain and the way you now process additional information. Once we know, we can implement specific skills to help your brain reprocess old details and develop new pathways for incoming data.
Learning these skills helps you think differently and feel better about your past, present, and future.
My Approach Isn’t “Normal” Therapy
Ever have a therapist who sits silently waiting for you to speak for a long-time? Torture, right?
No torture here! We’ll talk and talk some more. You won’t have to worry about the topic because every week there will be an agenda.
Sure, we’ll do a quick catch-up about how you’re doing and how your week went, but we will gear the bulk of our time together toward learning skills and practicing them.
Our Focus Is on How Thoughts Affect Your Feelings
Don’t worry about the dreaded “How does that make you feeeeeel” question. Ugh! Yeah, we’ll talk about your feelings for sure. But the focus is on what you were thinking about or what happened that created those feelings.
Once we have a clear idea of the source of those feelings, we employ skills that precisely target the root cause of your feelings – which is how your brain is processing things around you.
We’ll talk about the difference between what you’re thinking and feeling, as well as what is going on in your life.
Solving Problems Requires Action, not Talking
You will not sit around and talk about your problems – No, no, no! You’re going to do something about them.
We want real traction and change in your daily life! Homework is the key to implementing change.
There are 168 hours in a week, and therapy won’t move the needle for you if you’re not practicing your skills in the other 167 hours of the week. Expect homework – Lots of it – Every day!
Wait – How Does This Therapy Work?
Let’s break down the process into bite-size chunks.
Step 1 – Making Sure We are the Right Fit
I offer a free 20-minute consultation, so you can get a sense of what it’s like to work with me. Having a positive relationship with your therapist is probably an essential part of the entire therapy process. So, call me, and we’ll see if we are a good match.
Step 2 – Assessment & Road Map
In your first appointment, it’s about me getting to know you. I need to learn the ‘big picture’ of what you have going on in your life and what you want for your life.
The next couple of appointments are about taking that big picture to help you understand the brain, how it processes information, and how your brain has stored data from your past, which created a faulty template for how you process new information.
Your first homework assignment is an activity designed to help us understand your unique template. You’ll use your homework to make your own personalized map for how we move forward.
Step 3 – Skill Building to Take Back Your Brain
In the next five or more sessions, you’ll learn a new skill every appointment. Each skill builds on the previous one, and they help you reformat the way your brain processes information from your past (this will help reformat that template we discussed in Step 2).
Between appointments, you’re going to practice the skills Every Single Day! You’ll get a workbook, or you will use an app (your choice) to help you stay on track with the homework.
Step 4 – Take Back Your Life
Now you have all the skills and have tackled your brain’s way of processing things. As a result, we pivot to the significant areas of your life with which you are struggling. These areas include Safety, Trust, Power/Control, Esteem, and Intimacy.
We take that map from Step 2 and plug it into these major life areas. This map tells us exactly how your brain’s template has affected you in each of these places. Then, we use the skills to change the template in each area of your life.
Step 5 – Conquer Your World
On average, it takes people around 13 appointments to graduate from therapy – Yes, I said to graduate from therapy because people do that with me!
Sometimes, people do need (or want) a couple more sessions to tackle some final lingering things. This therapy aims to get you back on your feet and crush life as quickly as possible.
But Wait!
There’s one more little tiny detail that makes a BIG difference.
Every week, you fill out an assessment. Don’t worry. This assessment tool has gone through much fancy academic rigor, so we know it’s legit.
There are 20 questions about all different areas of your life that people with painful pasts struggle with. This assessment will help us track how you’re doing each week. We then get real-time data to see how well the skills are working and if we need to tweak anything.
I’m Not Your Normal Therapist
My family nickname growing up was Sassy Cassie – and I earned it. Even though my legal name is technically Catherine, everyone has always called me Cassie, except my first-grade teacher, Mrs. De’Angeles. But that’s another story. And sometimes, they’d even call me Miss Cass. But for our purposes, you can call me Cassie.
I’m a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (you can look up my license if you want: LI115859).
One of my earliest memories in life was feeling the joy that came from giving a homeless man a cookie on a wintry afternoon in January.
Since then, I became hooked on helping people. And my desire to help people led me to get my Master’s degree in Social Work from Simmons College in 2008 after receiving my BA in Psychology in 2006. I graduated magna cum laude, kind of a big deal, I know.
After graduate school, I have spent my career on a mission to help women overcome gender-based violence and the traumatic stress that comes with it. I am deeply passionate about helping women heal from sexual violation, dating violence, childhood abuse, and trauma.
I have worked in many settings (hospitals, outpatient mental health, college counseling centers), practiced as a clinician internationally, and spent several years as an Adjunct Professor at Simmons, teaching graduate students the ins and outs of being a therapist.
Being a nerd is a badge of honor. For fun, I got my MBA in Healthcare in 2020 (which explains why I like to track your progress data so much).
During my morning coffee, I read scholarly articles, continually reinvest in advanced training and supervision, and continuously hone my craft by improving how I operate my practice (there’s that MBA again).