Alexa von Oertzen, LMFT
"Helping teens, adults, & families improve their relationships, conquer their challenges, & lead happier lives"

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My experience for the populations I support covers a broad range of mental health services and modalities. From adolescents to adults, I want to help you feel your best. I specialize in providing a range of services in English or Portuguese to help my clients connect with their own potential while healing from the hurts that hold them back from their true power.

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Counseling For Adults: 

 

When working with adults, my experience covers the following areas:

 

• Anxiety & Stress

• Depression

• Bipolar Disorder

• Negative Thought Patterns

• Self-Esteem

• Trauma & PTSD

• Grief & Loss

• Life’s Transitions

 

Clients find my collaborative sessions helpful as we follow at their pace and preferred direction. This gives them the confidence to express their thoughts and feelings without feeling pressured or judged. The results then come from clients identifying recurring patterns present in their lives that have contributed to their negative frame of mind. 

 

They begin to increase awareness of their strengths, available resources, and worth within interpersonal relationships. This directly translates into positive mindsets, confidence, and long term improvement in their emotional well-being. 

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Counseling For Anxiety & Stress: 

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Social pressure, performance anxiety, too many obligations or past trauma may contribute to one or both as you try to hold it all together. It’s too much, and you feel that acutely, but you don’t have to bear it alone. Anxiety and stress therapy often mirror one another as they work deeply into the root of how you perceive yourself when the weight of the world presses on you. 

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From uncovering the root of anxiety and stress to recognizing the impacts it’s having on your day-to-day life, we will work together to begin to unravel the sense of helplessness it can create. As an anxiety therapist, I can help you with adjusting thoughts, developing coping skills and instilling confidence in your capability to survive the hard moments so you can thrive in the beautiful ones.  You can expect to learn how to recognize the signs of overload, cope with anxiety and manage stress in your daily life through your own power. 

Counseling For Depression, Bipolar Disorder, & Mood Disorders: 

Depression can make you feel isolated. The burden of trying to manage it all alone can be overwhelming. If you are struggling with finding support for yourself in therapy to manage a mood disorder like Bipolar Disorder or depression, I can help. 

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In a therapy session to overcome mood disorders, we will work together to rewrite the story of negativity that has a vice grip on your thoughts. You’ll be encouraged to access the tools and power you need to find hope and possibility in the life ahead of you.

 

Counseling for depression, bipolar and mood disorders is about more than finding hope. We will work together to process emotions, heal hurt and cultivate a sense of safety in your life through positive and adaptable coping tools. You can expect to discover better reflection skills, self-awareness, and a boosted sense of self-esteem along the way. 

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Counseling For Trauma, PTSD, & EMDR Therapy:

Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can happen to anyone. Whether you have experienced a disaster, traumatic event, or abusive situations, you may find yourself struggling to cope with how the world moves around you. You may also experience trauma a little bit at a time over long stretches of your life, rendering you numb and detached from the present and personal emotions.

  

No matter the size of the traumatic experience(s) you’ve endured, you deserve support for the difficulty it left behind. Trauma informed care is key to this. In counseling for individuals with trauma and PTSD, we’ll work together to understand what’s happened and how your mind has stored that information to hurt you, even now. You can expect to receive trauma informed care that uses a multidisciplinary approach with things like EMDR therapy to readdress self core beliefs and reach toward healing that supports your needs and perspective. 

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I am a trained EMDR therapist and delighted to bring you this revolutionary treatment option. Used most notably for trauma, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a modality unlike any other. This process happens during your therapy session and is designed to help you safely face the pain of what’s hurt you. Meanwhile, EMDR treatment is actively reprogramming your brain at a core level to help you heal from the past. 

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EMDR treatment is recognized across the world as an effective treatment for anxiety, chronic pain, depression, sexual assault, physical or emotional abuse, eating disorders, insomnia, grief, personality disorders and PTSD. 

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Family Therapy: 

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Whether you're overcoming a relationship issue or learning to communicate, family therapy can help you move toward healthier, more meaningful relationships. As a family therapist committed to the connectedness of community, I specialize in treatment to help you work through family conflict, poor relationship alignments, triangulations, lack of boundaries, issues with adoption, blended family issues, anxiety, trauma, teen academic and behavioral issues, teen self-esteem and improving parenting skills. 

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Family therapy is different than group therapy but it doesn't happen one on one. It’s important to remember when working with families that we are all a part of a whole. For this reason, I believe the more, the merrier when you come to sessions with me as a family therapist. You are welcome to invite all the parties you need to family sessions so that we can build a 3D view of how relationships impact you. You can expect to develop awareness that will create a lasting change to benefits the whole family.

Counseling For Life's Transitions: 

Change is inevitable, but it’s rarely comfortable. When you’re trying to move past a change that’s impacted your life or emotional state profoundly, you may not know where to start in moving forward. 

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Counseling for life transitions does not focus on where you’ve come from. Instead, we will work together from a solution-focused approach to identify where you need to be in the process of moving forward toward a future beyond the transition. You can expect plenty of space to process and understand what’s happened during the transition you’re experiencing as we take time to help you heal before making a plan for what comes next. 

Counseling For Men's Issues: 

Whether you appear to have it all or feel that you hardly appear on anyone’s radar, men’s mental health needs are often overlooked by society. You want to feel understood, supported, and like your mental health matters as much as everyone else’s even though you’ve never felt like you could express that in your daily life.

 

It’s likely that even if you know what you need, you’ve never felt validated in communicating that. Together, we’ll engage you in strengthening your confidence and self-awareness so you can take your professional and personal goals to the next level.

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You want to prove your worth and admire your success while remaining sensitive to your emotional bandwidth, and I want to help you accomplish that. Men deserve support in improving their relationships, confidence, and communication skills so that they can better what matters most: their wellbeing.

 

Having a female perspective can also have its advantages, as you can take in consideration different viewpoints and expectations. You can expect to feel heard and validated as you learn to make sense of your inner needs and how to express them to your loved ones comfortably and confidently.

Counseling For Brazillians with a Portuguese Speaking Therapist:

​As a Brazilian-American therapist, I am in tune with the cultural and emotional needs of my people. The way we think, the way we relate, and the way we care is unique. I attribute my genuine care for others directly from my upbringing in Brazil. I offer all my therapeutic modalities in Portuguese to align better with my Brazilian clients.  I too am an immigrant and know the unique difficulties experienced when faced with a new culture set with different expectations and judgements.

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I’ve previously been featured in the Florida Brazilian newspaper speaking about my passion for supporting this community. You can read more about counseling in Portuguese for the Brazilian community on my website. 

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Counseling For Teens & Young Adults: 

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Teenagers and young adults experience their inner and outer world in unique and profound ways. In response, my therapeutic approach to supporting teenagers is tailored to their individual and developmental needs.

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For teens who are experiencing depression, anxiety, a lack of confidence, negative thinking or struggling with risky behavior, non-judgmental understanding and support is vital. I will work with you using a strengths-based approach that relates back to your attachment needs in childhood and also offers hope for the future. You can expect to find reliable ways to cope with new emotions, as well as a supportive and a safe space that validates you and encourages you to find your strengths and your worth.

Counseling For Women's Issues: 

Despite being encouraged to access and share their vibrant emotional world, many women struggle to manage the self-doubt they experience. Whether you know exactly who you are and what you want, or you’re hoping to figure that out in therapy, I can help you unlock the places where you feel stuck to access your full potential.

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You can expect to be encouraged to reflect, explore and understand your past experiences and future aspirations through a combination of talk therapy and active approaches to self-healing and improvement during our time together.

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