Megan’s Take on Treatment

“We all have the capacity for change and the innate desire to do better. Problematic patterns of behavior, intense emotions that feel unmanageable, and a tendency to avoid often prevent people from a life that feels meaningful and rewarding. However, change is within your reach. Effective therapy combines your expertise on the problems you face daily, with expertise on behavioral change and emotions to help you break out of these patterns. With a willingness and commitment to addressing what is keeping you stuck, a nonjudgmental therapeutic relationship, and a set of shared goals, we will confront these problems with evidence-based treatment so you can get out of your head and into your life.”

Approach to Therapy

Megan recognizes that coming to therapy is a brave and often difficult step. She approaches clients with compassion and understanding and sees building a therapeutic alliance with shared goals for therapy as central to any effective treatment. Megan first seeks to understand the distress clients are experiencing and engages clients in collaborative treatment planning. Treatment is tailored to the client’s individual needs and symptoms. Megan’s therapeutic approach is based in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. She is trained in exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders and OCD (Exposure and Response Prevention), and trauma-focused treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure). Megan appreciates mindfulness-based interventions and often integrates other evidence-based treatments like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy into treatment as needed. Megan’s goal for each client is to provide knowledge and skills and empower individuals to understand their problematic patterns and learn to challenge these problems head-on.

Experience and Training

Megan is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Northern Illinois University. She has previously worked in outpatient and community mental health clinics providing comprehensive psychological assessment, individual therapy, and DBT skills group and is comfortable treating children, teens, and adults.  She has a particular interest in anxiety disorders, OCD, posttraumatic stress disorder, and personality dysfunction. Before attending graduate school, Megan worked in group homes with individuals with intellectual disabilities and severe mental health concerns, and as an on-call advocate for sexual assault survivors. She has received training in Exposure and Response Prevention, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and treatment for borderline personality disorder and sleep problems. Megan also has experience integrating other cognitive-behavioral interventions as needed, such as mindfulness, behavioral activation, and motivational interviewing.

More about Megan

Megan is originally from Iowa. She loves reading, live music, embroidery/crafts, and spending time with her husband and two cats.