Early on, during my internships while in graduate school, it became clear to me that what clients seemed to benefit from the most was being provided with a safe space, positive regard, and connection. Yet I was being taught to work within the framework of "the medical model" in which we had to diagnose clients. Giving clients a diagnosis seemed to undermine my ability to create a safe and nurturing connection with them. I believe that it is much more constructive to view mental, emotional, and behavioral issues as conditioned and unconscious responses to upsetting, and sometimes traumatic, experiences and misperceptions. In fact, most symptoms are a manifestation of unresolved emotional experience. And, because we are all human and have emotions, there is no need to pathologize people or the issues with which they struggle.

I became interested in healing, shortly after I began working with clients, because I felt that "talk therapy" was not very effective in accessing the root of most people's problems. The reason for this is that most talk therapy works on the cognitive level which is in the arena of the conscious mind. The conscious mind, however, is but one aspect of a person. We also have the body's intelligence, the unconscious mind, the spiritual level, and energy levels. Eastern medicine and indiginous healers have been working with all of these levels/intelligences for centuries. It is a commonly held principle, in these cultures as well as ancient ones, that in order to heal, a person must experience balance and connection with all facets of himself. In other words, healing means becoming whole.

The models of therapy that I work with all foster balance, harmony, and wholeness in different ways. Internal Family Systems Therapy™ enables people to identify and connect with the different parts of themselves as well as their larger core SELF. Harmony, self-acceptance, and wholeness emerge in the course of this process. Healing From The Body Level Up™ (HBLU™) enlists all facets of the client by allowing the client's deepest wisdom to guide us towards healing and Energy Psychology techniques, included in the model, enable fast and painless release of symptoms while affirming that the symptoms are not the client's truth. Finally, Reconnective Healing® provides a means of connecting with powerful frequencies of balance, light, and information that enable healing to occur at all levels. My role, in all of this, is to hold the space for whatever you need in order to experience a greater level of balance, harmony, and wholeness in yourself and your life.

Margot McClellan is a licensed clinical social worker. Her more than 20 years of professional experience include working with a variety of clients including children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. She works with Internal Family Systems™ Therapy, Healing From The Body Level Up and a complementary blend of healing modalities in addressing the specific needs of each client with whom she works. Margot believes the relationship she has with each client is of the utmost importance.