At Hillside we believe that mental health is linked to our experiences with relationships—as part of a complex matrix composed of self-concept, attachments to others, and interpersonal interactions, all shaped by our earliest caregiving environments. Personal growth in therapy occurs through the exploration of past relationship patterns within a uniquely supportive context that can serve as a new model for relating to yourself and others, and a new way of understanding your symptoms.

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In essence, therapy involves reconstructing personal experience in a way that helps individuals move towards accepting all parts of themselves, both “good” and “bad.” We address the inherent urge humans have to construct a meaningful personal narrative from their experiences. Because we become who we are through relationships, discussing interactions and the meaning of others’ perceptions of us is an important focus of psychotherapy.

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At Hillside we take a trauma-informed lens in our approach to helping clients. This doesn't mean that you have to identify as a trauma survivor to get help from us, but most people have experienced some sort of trauma in the course of their lives. Traumatic experiences are subjective—what one person perceives as traumatic is not necessarily the same as another. As a result there is a very broad range of what we consider trauma, as well as how we treat it in therapy. Overall what we know is that trauma negatively impacts our relationships—the very relationships we need to heal from what we’ve been through. The clinicians in our practice are versed in trauma-focused interventions to help you connect with yourself and other people to help the healing begin.