Greetings! My name is Audrey and I'm a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) in Michigan. I got my degree from Western Michigan University and have been working in the field for 14 years. During my time as a social worker, I have worked for several years as a school social worker, working with students who receive special education services as well as students who do not. I have also worked in private practice focusing on couples counseling, teens and young adults.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
During the first session, I would review the information you provided in your initial paperwork and ask what you are hoping to achieve with attending therapy. I also think it's important to discuss what potential barriers you may face and do some planning to overcome those barriers as they come up.
Finally, we would discuss some 'homework' for you to work on until we see each other again. Applying what we do in therapy to the real world is an important step in helping to achieve our goals.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
My experience as a social worker in many different areas has helped me develop a variety of tools and resources that are easily applicable to life outside of the therapy office.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I have really enjoyed working with teens and young adults with anxiety, ADHD, executive functioning deficits and school concerns, as well as providing resources and coaching to parents over my last several years as a school social worker and therapist. Sometimes providing education and simple tools can make all the difference in how we feel and what we can accomplish.
About Audrey Litts
Appointments
Virtual
My treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I like to teach the concept of CBT to all of my clients in an educational way in order to help them understand and start to notice how their every day thoughts, feelings and actions/behaviors are all connected. I also find the use of CBT 'homework' a helpful tool to help clients apply what they learn in therapy to every day situations.
Couples Counseling
Like any type of therapy, improving relationships through couples counseling is a lot of work and can be well worth it when both partners respect each other and put forth genuine effort.
I have completed level 1 of Gottman couples therapy training and enjoy using some of the tools that the Gottman's have created to help facilitate healthy relationship and communication skills. Other resources I like to pull from when working with couples is discussing family roles and expectations, the 5 love languages, and work from Shirley Glass on healing from infidelity.
Psychoeducation
I honestly believe this is the most important part of my job as a therapist. It's so difficult to understand how to make changes to our lives when we don't understand why certain things happen. There is enormous power in feeling like we understand ourselves and have some control over our thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviors and relationships with others. Often, this begins with some simple understanding of the 'why' and then from there, you can work on the 'how'.
Strength-Based
Using our strengths to heal is more than just about identifying what we are good at. It's about putting our strengths to work to help us meet our goals. It's also about helping to identify our resources in order to help us solve problems and live a happier life.
Solution Focused Brief Treatment
This type of therapy is based on meeting specific goals and as the name suggests, focuses on problem solving specific issues. For some concerns, it isn't always necessary to do a deep dive into the underlying 'why of it all', this is where focusing on what's right in front of us can be a good place to start.
