Empowering Change Through Awareness and Understanding.

Therapy services for adults, adolescents, and children online across Pennsylvania and in person in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.

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Offers Telehealth Appointments

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Accepting New Clients

areas of expertise

  • We strive to enhance clients' daily experiences by helping them develop a more calm, peaceful, and regulated state. We utilize a diverse range of therapeutic strategies, including mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). We tailor sessions to individual client’s needs and work collaboratively with clients to identify the root causes and triggers of anxiety and provide skills for effective coping.

  • In order to meet the needs of families with young children who have behavioral challenges, we have a clinician (Sarah Hall) who is certified in Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT). PCIT is an evidenced based treatment for young children with behavioral challenges. The therapist works with a parent(s) through “coaching” sessions where they learn strategies to help manage their child’s behavior. The first phase focuses on strategies to help the child feel calm and a sense of security in their relationship with their parent. The second phase focuses on strategies to help the child accept limits, comply with directions, respect house rules, and demonstrate appropriate behavior in public.

  • We are committed to creating a safe, welcoming, and supportive space for individuals of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions. Our therapists are experienced in providing affirming care that respects and honors the unique experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community. Whether you're navigating challenges related to your identity, relationships, or mental health, we are here to offer a non-judgmental environment where you can explore your feelings and work toward healing with dignity and understanding.

    Your identity is valid, and you deserve care that meets your needs with respect, compassion, and professionalism.

  • We recognize that life is full of transitions. We also know that transitions can be overwhelming, and filled with uncertainty and distress. We have years of experience helping individuals navigate various life transitions, including career changes, educational pursuits, family dynamics, loss, and the aging process. We are here to help you find clarity, support you through these changes and learn effective coping strategies when needed.

  • One of our clinicians (Christina Van Patter) specializes in maternal mental health, offering support to women and their partners throughout all stages of parenting, from pregnancy through postpartum and beyond. She understands the unique emotional, physical, and psychological challenges that can arise during this time, including perinatal anxiety, depression, and adjustment to motherhood. 


    To support her peripartum work, she uses The Art of Holding Perinatal Women in Distress as a model of creating space and caring for the peripartum woman who is experiencing authentic suffering through the peripartum period, which includes pregnancy through the first year postpartum.

  • In addressing relationship challenges, we incorporate Attachment theory and the Gottman method. Our aim is to support individuals and couples in navigating their relationships with a focus on understanding and strengthening attachment bonds.

  • For parents of children diagnosed with anxiety disorders, our therapist, Lori Haller, provides specialized training through the evidence-based Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) program. This program empowers parents to reduce accommodating behaviors that may exacerbate their children's anxiety, fostering a balanced and supportive approach to challenging situations. Even though the child is not present for the sessions, research has shown that the child’s anxiety decreases through this treatment.

  • Our approach to trauma focuses on helping clients overcome its significant impact on their daily lives. We are trauma-informed practitioners who recognize that trauma can have a lasting impact on how we think, feel, make decisions, behave, and plan for the future. Our goal is to help increase an individual’s awareness of how trauma can have such a significant impact and work to create healing so that traumatic experiences no longer have that power.

  • Several of our clinicians have over a decade of experience welcoming clients from diverse backgrounds. We specialize in working with refugees and immigrants worldwide. Our commitment to cultural competency and humility, along with proficiency in working with an interpreter in a therapeutic setting, ensures a supportive and inclusive environment.

Awareness Counseling Pittsburgh Services

  • Awareness Counseling Pittsburgh offers Individual counseling for adults and adolescents. We strive to create a warm, compassionate atmosphere that opens the opportunity for creating lasting change. We understand that taking the step to begin counseling is often not an easy one. We are here to support and assist you with learning skills to work through challenges. We are strengths-based and believe that as humans we all have the capacity to use our strengths to work through our areas of challenge. Individual counseling is provided through telehealth or in office for adolescents and adults.

  • Awareness Counseling Pittsburgh offers premarital counseling, as well as couples counseling using the Gottman method. This method helps clients learn how to build a strong foundation for their relationship, learn effective conflict management strategies, build an overall positive attitude and work together to build a common dream/plan for the future.

  • Awareness Counseling Pittsburgh offers consulting services to agencies or practices working with refugee and immigrant populations.

additional resources:

If you need emergency medical or mental health care, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

Allegheny County RESOLVE Crisis Network

888-796-8226

National Domestic Violence Hotline

800-799-SAFE (7233)

Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

988

Women’s Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh

412-687-8005

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape

1-866-363-7273