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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, 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.