Stephanie Isbell, MA, LCPC
Montana License #50324
Family Therapy is for Everyone
Even if you are not in a family, you are carrying one with you!
The family you grew up in has had a profound impact on who you are, what you can do, what is difficult, and how you cope with life challenges… but it doesn’t have to limit you. The key is becoming aware of these influences and learning how to work with them. Appreciating where you came from sets you free to go where you choose.
How I can help:
Individual Counseling
Teenagers and their parents live in very different worlds in their minds and emotions. Teens are experiencing doubts and challenges that their parents did not have to wrestle with. Parents have wisdom and experience to share but sometimes they are at a loss how to do that.
Elements of DIR, Family Systems Trauma Therapy, and Relational Life Therapy can help you change how you listen and how you communicate with your family members. Learn how to respect each other’s learning process, emotions, and ideas, honoring differences and loving well.
Family Therapy
Parents and children, adult siblings, multigenerational groups; etc.!
A family ideally provides necessary resources and learning for all members. For those who do not have parents with the capacities to protect their children and help them develop, family may be (or have been) full of painful difficulties. You may be one of those parents, or one of those children, or adults in a family who want to get past all of it.
In particular, if your family is struggling to help a neurodiverse child or teen, there is a lot of uncharted territory. DIR/Floortime is a developmental and relational treatment where the child is viewed as a whole person who has needs in the areas of sensory (taking the world in), motor (movement, planning), brain function, and relationships.
I work in partnership with my colleague Doug Cochran-Roberts of Safe Haven Counseling and Consulting, as well as Occupational and Speech-Language Therapists and other specialists, to provide families with the best overall care. If you want to get your family on a better trajectory, this is your team.
Couples
Relational Life Therapy (RLT) dives straight into what is causing problems in your coupleship or marriage. You will discover surprising things about how you navigated in your family as a child, how those patterns are still steering your relationship, and how to take back the wheel!
This is deeply emotional work, yes. Unlike other couples therapies, however, RLT includes practical skills training you can use in all your relationships
Incorporating Spirituality
Want to make spirituality an integral part of counseling?
Many religious people come to therapy with misgivings about “psychology” and whether it will clash with their beliefs. Counseling professionals believe that spirituality is an important part of emotional and psychological health.
I am keenly curious about the spirituality clients have built into their lives and how it can support their therapy goals. I am professionally trained to work with atheist, Christian, or Jewish clients—but I honor the spiritual understandings, strivings and questionings of all. You are in charge!