Empowering people to have healthy relationships with themselves, others, and with substances.

Chalaina Connors MA, LPC

I am a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist. I primarily work by changing people’s thoughts and behaviors, which in turn can affect their feelings. I specialize in empowering people to have healthy relationships with themselves, others, and with substances.

THEMSELVES
  • Treating trauma and anxiety symptoms
  • Building up people’s self-esteems/feelings of self worth
  • Teaching healthy coping skills (see resources tab for some videos of the skills I teach)
  • Stress and time management skills
OTHERS
  • Psychoeducation about healthy versus unhealthy/abusive relationships
  • Working only with survivors/victims of unhealthy/abusive relationships
  • Communication and listening skills
  • Conflict resolution/deescalation skills
  • Safety planning for leaving an abusive relationship
  • Building intimacy and trust with new relationships
SUBSTANCES
  • Psychoeducation/harm reduction psychotherapy regarding substances
  • Identifying reasons why people use substances; coping mechanisms
  • Integration work for people who have had difficult psychedelic experiences

As a licensed professional counselor, I am credentialed with multiple insurance panels: Aetna, Moda Health, Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and PacificSource. I MAY be able to bill other insurance companies as an out-of-network provider, but that is entirely dependent on your benefit coverage. Please contact me if you have any questions about payment options.

Resources

Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise

Diaphragmatic breathing is also known as abdominal breathing or belly breathing. This is breathing that is done by contracting the diaphragm, which is a muscle located horizontally between the chest cavity and stomach cavity. Air enters the lungs and the belly expands during this type of breathing.

It is important to practice this daily for 5 minutes. The more you practice, the easier it will become to breathe this way naturally. Breathing this way can help you relax, which can help you to de-stress and help relieve anxiety symptoms. After 5 minutes, notice how relaxed you feel! If you don’t feel that relaxed, feel free to do this exercise for more time, or proceed to the next exercise.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise

When doing this exercise, it is important to not tense your muscles too tightly, or you could possibly injure yourself.

Therefore, imagine a scale of 1-10, one being the most relaxed you could be, and 10 being the hardest you could tense your muscles. You want to only tense to about a level 5.

Resource: Leahy, Robert L., and Holland, Stephen J. “Behavioral Techniques.” Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders. New York: Guilford, 2000. 332 pages. Paperback.

Contact

Client Portal/Make an Appointment:

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Curative Groove – Chalaina Connors, MA, LPC
ONLY PROVIDING TELEHEALTH SERVICES!
(503) 784-0226
[email protected]

Mailing address: PO Box 86038, Portland, Or. 97286

EMAIL IS NOT SECURE! Please do not send personal information via email.
 

Help

Having a Crisis?

In case of an emergency, please call 9-1-1

In case of a mental health crisis, please call any of the following crisis lines:

Multinomah County Crisis Line
503-988-4888

Washington County Crisis Line
503-291-9111

Clackamas County Crisis Line
503-655-8585

National Domestic Violence Hotline
800-799-7233

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
800-273-8255

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