Robin Salyer Fleischer
I’m a warm, down-to-earth therapist with more than 25 years of experience helping people navigate anxiety, trauma, relationships, grief, career and life transitions, and those seasons when life simply doesn’t look the way you thought it would. My approach is compassionate, practical, solution-focused, and collaborative. I’ll listen carefully and create a space where you can be completely yourself—but I’ll also ask thoughtful questions, offer honest feedback, help you recognize patterns, and give you practical tools you can actually use outside of therapy. Life experience has shaped me just as much as education and professional training. I’ve been married to my HS sweetheart for more than four decades, raised three children, experienced loss and grief, navigated career changes, family challenges, parenting, marriage, aging, and the many unexpected chapters that come with building a life alongside the people you love. Those experiences have given me a deep appreciation for resilience, relationships, humor, and the fact that none of us gets through life without a few scars and stories! My work is especially meaningful with adults and couples navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship challenges, parenting, first responder or military life, grief, major transitions, and questions about identity or purpose. I enjoy working with people who may appear capable and successful on the outside while privately feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, stuck, or exhausted from holding everything together. My therapy is holistic and individualized. Depending on what fits you, we may incorporate evidence-based approaches alongside mindfulness, humor, nature, animals, relationships, meaning and purpose, and faith or spirituality if that's valued. I believe therapy should help you understand where you’ve been without keeping you there. Together, we’ll focus on healing what hurts, strengthening what already works, and helping you intentionally build a life and relationships that feel authentic, meaningful, and with any luck a little lighter.
First session
Starting therapy can feel intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before. My goal for your first session is simple: I want you to leave feeling heard, understood, hopeful, and a little lighter than when you arrived. Our first meeting is a conversation, not an interrogation. I’ll want to understand what brought you to therapy, what has been happening in your life, what is working, what isn’t, and what you would like to be different. We’ll talk about your history, relationships, strengths, challenges, and goals at a pace that feels comfortable. You never have to tell your entire life story in one hour—or share something before you’re ready. I also don’t believe you should have to wait several sessions before therapy begins to feel useful. When appropriate, I may offer observations, ask thought-provoking questions, introduce a practical strategy, or help you see a situation from a different perspective during our first conversation. With couples, the first session looks a little different. My goal isn’t to determine who is right, choose sides, or keep score. I want each partner to feel heard as we begin to understand the relationship itself—how you communicate, where you get stuck, what happens during conflict, what each person needs, and what continues to bring you together. Often, the problem isn’t simply the topic you’re arguing about, but the pattern you have developed around it. Whether you come individually or as a couple, you don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what to say. Come as you are. By the end of our first session, I hope you feel that you’ve found a safe place to be honest, that your concerns make sense within the context of your story, and that together we have a direction for moving forward.
Strengths
One of my strengths as a therapist is knowing when someone needs me to sit with them—and when to challenge them to see things differently. I provide a warm, compassionate, nonjudgmental space, but I’m not the kind of therapist who sits quietly and nods for an hour. Therapy works best as an active conversation built on trust, curiosity, honesty, and sometimes a little humor! My approach draws from (CBT), motivational interviewing, Socratic questioning, narrative therapy, mindfulness, and solution-focused strategies. I love asking questions that help clients become curious about their own thinking: Is this belief true? Where did it come from? Is it still serving you? What would happen if you responded differently? I help clients recognize negative thought patterns, challenge beliefs that keep them stuck, identify their strengths, and experiment with healthier ways of approaching their lives and relationships. More than 25 years as a therapist have given me clinical experience, but life has been an equally important teacher. I’ve experienced a long marriage, parenting, loss and grief, complicated family relationships, career transitions, unexpected changes, tremendous joys, painful chapters, and the ordinary messiness of being human. Those experiences have taught me that resilience isn’t about avoiding hardship—it’s about learning how to change without losing yourself! Healing can involve more than conversation. Depending on the individual, therapy may incorporate mindfulness, humor, nature, animals, movement, relationships, meaning and purpose, & faith or spirituality when desired. Clients can expect me to meet them with compassion while also believing in growth. We’ll explore the past when it helps explain the present, but we won’t build a home there. My goal is for you to understand your story, challenge what is keeping you stuck, recognize choices available to you now, & begin creating a life that feels more intentional, connected, authentic & genuinely yours.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone ready for something in life to feel different—even if they aren’t quite sure what needs to change or how to begin. They may be navigating anxiety, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, parenting challenges, career transitions, burnout, or simply feeling overwhelmed by the demands of everyday life. Often, they are the capable person others depend on while privately wondering, “Who takes care of me?” I especially enjoy working with adults and couples during life transitions: college and young adulthood, marriage and relationship changes, parenting, career decisions, military or first responder life, empty nesting, caregiving, loss, midlife, and the unexpected chapters that can leave us questioning who we are and what comes next. My clients don’t need to arrive in therapy with everything figured out. They simply need some willingness to be curious about themselves. You may want to understand why certain patterns keep repeating, communicate more effectively, quiet an anxious mind, heal from experiences that still affect you, strengthen your relationships, set healthier boundaries, or rediscover parts of yourself that got lost while you were taking care of everyone else. I work especially well with clients who want therapy to be both supportive and active. Sometimes you may need a safe place to be heard without judgment. Other times, you may want thoughtful questions, practical tools, a different perspective, or someone willing to gently challenge a belief that is keeping you stuck. You don’t have to fit into one particular box to work with me. I welcome individuality, humor, questions, vulnerability, and different perspectives. Whether your goals involve healing the past, improving the present, strengthening relationships, finding greater meaning, or deciding what you want your next chapter to look like, we’ll work together to create a life that feels more peaceful, connected, intentional, and authentically yours.
Origin story
I sometimes joke that it took changing my college major ten times to discover what I was meant to do. The funny part? I began with psychology—and eventually came right back to psychology. Apparently, I needed to explore nine other possibilities before trusting what had been there all along. My path to becoming a therapist was also shaped by my own life. Growing up in a complicated and often chaotic family gave me an early curiosity about people: why we become who we are, how families shape us, why some patterns follow us into adulthood, and, most importantly, how we can choose to create something different. I knew I wanted a helping profession, but counseling brought together so many pieces of who I am—my fascination with individual and family development, love of relationships, natural curiosity about people's stories, and belief that healing involves the whole person. Life continued to shape the therapist I became. A long and loving marriage has taught me that healthy relationships aren't about perfection; they're about growing, repairing, laughing, adapting, and continuing to choose one another. Becoming a parent, experiencing pregnancy loss, navigating life's unexpected chapters, and growing through my own joys and heartaches deepened my desire to work with couples, relationships, parenting, grief, trauma, and life transitions. Over the years, my approach has become increasingly holistic. I believe healing can include evidence-based therapy alongside connection, humor, nature, animals, movement, meaning, and—when desired by the client—faith and spirituality. After more than 25 years in this profession, I still consider it a privilege when someone trusts me with their story. I don't believe therapy is simply about feeling better. It's about understanding yourself, healing what hurts, strengthening what matters, and intentionally creating a life and relationships you can look back on with fewer regrets.
Ongoing work together
One of my favorite parts of therapy is watching the small changes begin to add up. You may come in one day and casually mention that you handled a difficult conversation differently, set a boundary without feeling guilty for three days, quieted an anxious thought, laughed again, or realized something that once overwhelmed you simply doesn’t have the same power anymore. Those moments matter—and we’ll notice and build on them together. Our sessions won’t feel like starting over each time. I’ll remember your story, the people who matter to you, the patterns we’ve discovered, the goals you’re working toward, and the things you’re still trying to understand. We’ll begin with where you are that day while continuing the work we’ve already started. My style is warm, conversational, collaborative, and active. Depending on your needs, I may use CBT, motivational interviewing, Socratic questioning, narrative therapy, mindfulness, humor, and solution-focused strategies. Sometimes I’ll simply listen because you need space to be heard. Other times, I’ll ask a question that makes you pause, gently challenge a negative belief, offer another perspective, or encourage you to try something different between sessions. Progress rarely happens in a perfectly straight line. We’ll look for meaningful changes: understanding yourself better, recovering from anxiety more quickly, recognizing triggers, communicating more openly, setting healthier boundaries, trusting yourself, experiencing more joy, or responding differently to something that once pulled you into an old pattern. With couples, we’ll build on what we learn about your relationship, practice healthier communication, recognize conflict patterns earlier, strengthen connection, and learn to approach problems as partners rather than opponents. Ultimately, I want therapy to become a place where you feel known, challenged, encouraged, and supported while creating meaningful change. My hope is that, over time, you’ll recognize something important: you’re not just feeling better—you’re becoming more confident in your ability to navigate life without needing therapy to do it.
Treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and actions influence one another—and how changing even one part of that pattern can begin to change how you experience your life. Many of us develop ways of thinking and responding that made sense during difficult seasons but may no longer serve us well. In our sessions, we’ll slow things down and become curious about what is happening beneath the surface. What were you telling yourself in that moment? What did you assume someone else was thinking? What were you afraid might happen? Where did that belief come from? Is it still true today, or are anxiety, past experiences, fear, perfectionism, or self-doubt influencing the story? I won’t simply tell you to “think positively” or hand you a worksheet and send you on your way. Therapy with me is conversational and practical. I ask a lot of thoughtful questions—sometimes questions that may make you pause, laugh, reconsider something, or say, “I’ve never thought about it that way before.” Together, we’ll identify patterns that keep showing up in your relationships, work, parenting, anxiety, self-esteem, or other areas of life. Then we’ll explore what you can realistically do differently. That might mean setting a boundary, approaching something you’ve been avoiding, communicating differently, questioning your inner critic, tolerating uncertainty, or experimenting with a healthier response to an old trigger. We’ll also pay attention to what happens between sessions, because real life is where you practice change. We can look at what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned about yourself. Over time, my goal is for you to become your own best observer—able to catch an unhelpful thought before automatically believing it, recognize an old pattern before repeating it, and pause long enough to choose your response. Ultimately, this work is about creating greater freedom, confidence, and choice in how you live your life.
Location
Virtual sessions