Monica Alisse
Hi there! With over three years of experience as a therapist, I have found my specialty in supporting individuals as they navigate the lasting impact of childhood trauma. I’m passionate about helping clients understand their experiences, develop healthier patterns, build self-awareness, and move forward with greater confidence, compassion, and resilience.
First session
Aside from learning about your background and developmental history, I focus on identifying your strengths and normalizing your experiences through validation, compassion, and insight. Together, we explore how perceived flaws may actually be adaptive strategies that once served a purpose. From there, we can begin transforming these patterns into healthier habits that support you in navigating what is happening in your life today.
Strengths
I focus on connection, self-awareness, communication, emotional regulation, and growth.
Ideal clients
My clients are people who have always felt different or alone while navigating complex relationships that conflict with their genuine way of being. They are sensitive, caring, and may struggle with guilt, resentment, grief, and self-abandonment. In therapy, they seek meaning from their past pains, reconnect with lost parts of themselves, and piece themselves back together, like beautiful Kintsugi porcelain.
Origin story
I have learned that our reactions to drastic life changes—graduating from college, owning a new home, or caring for family—can reveal beliefs shaped by our temperament and environment growing up.
Ongoing work together
Clients notice progress when they begin showing up for themselves and creating consistent routines that incorporate the insights they gain in therapy and the practices they apply outside of sessions. Insight comes first, and progress takes time—it isn’t always easy. Helping you move through that transition is a big part of the therapeutic process. You may leave sessions feeling relieved as you better understand your thoughts and feelings. And don’t be alarmed if anger comes up! Part of the work is accessing suppressed emotions that need to be felt, understood, and processed in order to grow and move forward.
Treatment methods
Attachment-based
Attachment styles can reveal patterns in how you relate to others. I guide you in understanding how your attachment style developed, the thoughts and beliefs connected to it, and how it may influence your relationships. Together, we find healthier ways to adapt and communicate your needs to help build more secure and meaningful connections with others.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
I use Emotionally Focused Therapy along with Attachment Theory to explore how early relationships shaped the way you connect with others. We look at the emotions and attachment needs underneath your reactions and practice expressing your needs in healthier ways.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Emotions can help us access vulnerable and suppressed parts of ourselves that we may feel ashamed to show the world, often because of what we learned in childhood. I’ll help you map the parts of you that show up most often and understand how, while protective, they may be limiting other parts of you from having a voice. Together, we’ll understand why these protective parts developed, help you reconnect with your inner child, and create space for healing and greater self-trust.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
DBT combines cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness. I also integrate somatic work to build awareness of how different parts of you create and hold energy in your body. We challenge the beliefs that fuel that energy while learning to nurture and tolerate the pain or discomfort underneath it through guided meditation and other mindfulness practices. You’ll discover that mindfulness can be simple and that you likely already have many of the tools you need. Together, we’ll create routines that support your lifestyle and help you pay closer attention to your needs.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Top specialties
Serves
Doesn't specialize in
Licensed in
- WashingtonLicense MHC.LH.70066625