“Make a list of what is really important to you. Embody it.”

- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are - Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life

Colleen Gallagher, LCSW, MBSR, EMDR

Specialty Areas

Anxiety and Stress

Maybe you find yourself “scrolling” more than usual, or avoiding people/situations, procrastinating, unable to relax, or worrying over and over, stuck on the same thing.You’ve got butterflies in your stomach, you’re irritable, you opt for overworking rather than socializing, always going-doing. Or maybe it’s hard to focus, concentrate or even sleep. All of these can be signs of anxiety and a continual activation of your stress response.

Anxiety is a modern epidemic with over 1/3 of us suffering from some form of it. And while dealing with stress is part of our everyday life, it can feel overwhelming when life keeps piling on stressor after stressor. Sometimes we feel we’re nearing a breaking point when the old familiar ways of coping just don’t seem to cut it anymore.

I combine talk-therapy with Mindfulness and Integrative Mind-Body approaches. As a provider of the gold standard in stress reduction, the official MBSR 8-week program, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (credentialed through University of Massachusetts Medical School, CFM founded by Jon Kabat Zinn), I help you to alleviate/reduce stress, worry, and anxiousness using a combination of Mind-Body tools and cognitive behavior along with habit and lifestyle change tools.

I offer a safe, warm, professional and positive approach for people who are looking to understand and heal from the challenges and emotional difficulties they face. Many say I help them reduce self-judgment and feel more confident, even lighter. 

Working together, we uncover root causes of your stress, understand the science of stress and anxiety, and the science of emotions. The goal is to help you diminish troublesome thoughts, feelings and behaviors, to strengthen your emotional well-being, and promote self-acceptance/awareness and connection with others.

Developing more Satisfying Relationships

If your relationships feel stressful, disconnected, lonely, tense, conflict-heavy, or filled with apathy or ambivalence, I can help. I specialize in working with relationship conflicts, social anxiety, nervous system regulation, emotional regulation, adult attachment issues stemming from childhood, and mindful communication based on NVC (Non-Violent Communication).

In Relationship-Focused Therapy we work one-on-one in individual therapy sessions to understand and work with your relationship patterns and current unease or distress. I use the principles of Interpersonal Neurobiology and the science of emotions and the brain-body-social-connection to provide a safe container for building trust, safety, repair from ruptures, social connection, ease, a sense of play, and a sense of belonging.

Building on experiential processes I support you to implement new ways of being in relationships with others. Relationship-Focused Therapy is a collaboration that honors your strengths and innate wisdom. You are invited to bring your courage, curiosity and openness in order to discover fresh, brave new ways of being in relationship with yourself, with others and the world.

Feeling Stuck, Depression

Being unable to move or moving slowly, experiencing foggy thoughts, feeling stuck, slogging through the day. Depressive flare-ups can happen, especially if you’ve had sadness, low mood or poor sleep for a long while (and particularly if you had a parent with depression). When depression sets in, it can feel like small things are insurmountable, nothing is enjoyable, and the ability to start or finish tasks feels far, far away.

Compassion is where we begin. I use effective evidence-based therapies like MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy), IFS (Internal Family Systems), and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). Mood imbalance responds well to working from both the inside out (attachment, inner child / parts work, sense of self) and from the outside in (behaviors, habits, concrete strategies).

Understanding how your brain and body (your neurobiology) work is the launch pad for our therapeutic work. We use mindfulness, work with your emotions and numbness, address procrastination and feelings of being stuck, and encourage connection with yourself and the world around you.

EMDR Therapy, the Brain and Memories

Do you have dull, uneasy, or anxious feelings around some memories (or even a lack of memories) affecting your sense of self and your relationships?

Adverse life experiences, especially those that happen to us before the age of twelve such as the loss of a parent or sibling or a parent with mental health issues, can contribute to current negative psychological/biological symptoms. These adverse experiences affect memory processing and integration, resulting in difficult and upsetting “undigested” or unprocessed memories that resurface especially in times of stress.

As an EMDRIA qualified provider of EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), I help you to alleviate distress, integrate your own natural resources and begin to feel more at ease in your own skin and in the world.

EMDR Therapy combines bi-lateral stimulation, somatic tools, cognitive processing and memory reintegration to help decrease negative emotions and/or the vividness of disturbing images and distressing events.

While EMDR was originally developed as a treatment for trauma, EMDR is not exclusively used to treat trauma. EMDR Therapy helps in the treatment of many resistant psychological, developmental, and emotional distress symptoms and other adverse life experiences.

Meditation and Psychotherapy

Are you someone who meditates or is interested in learning to meditate? Perhaps you’re interested in developing a healthier, more enlivened, wakeful and experiential way of being in the world. Does contemplative practice, or the development of compassionate self regard interest you?

If so, you may wish to integrate Meditation into your therapy sessions. I’m a longtime meditator, a certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher, Yoga Alliance instructor E-RYT, with additional credentials in Buddhist Psychology and contemplative practices.

Using a model of Contemplative Medicine and Meditation and Psychotherapy, I offer Mindfulness Meditation instruction and Mindful Self-Compassion practices for those who wish to Meditate, explore self identity, contemplative practice, and the development of Compassionate Self Regard as part of our psychotherapy sessions.

Resilience Psychology for Professionals

You might have a new challenge, success, or promotion that’s calling for your “best self” right here, right now. Or you’re interested in leveling up after your recent “360.” If you’re at a crossroads, especially now when the world is changing with such speed, it’s normal to question who you are, where you’re headed, and your place and part in it all.

I work with leaders, high performers, artists, athletes and those seeking to live their best version of themselves cultivating a sense of purpose, connection, joy and aliveness.

A life coach and psychotherapist, I’m a certified meditation teacher, former Broadway performer, and yoga teacher with credentials in resiliency training. Working collaboratively, I help you to develop resilience, flexibility, and awareness. We work to strengthen your emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, to set goals and increase excellence in performance, and to align actions with values in order to live more fully, more intentionally and to continue to grow and evolve supporting your best self.

Couples Therapy

Maybe what once worked is not working anymore. Whether it’s a marriage or a committed partnership, relationships can ebb and flow, affecting you and your partner’s sense of closeness, trust and intimacy.

Many people come to couples therapy when things fall apart. But a fundamentally healthy loving relationship can veer off course (without falling apart) due to the stressors of everyday living in a modern world.

I help couples with issues surrounding trust, infidelity, communication, in-laws, money, differing attachment styles, parenting, coping with challenging life circumstances, sex and intimacy, shifting goals, battles over chores and responsibilities, and drifting apart.

In Couples Therapy, we work to repair ruptures, recognize the difference between needs and wants, and develop mindful communication. I help couples to develop and restore healthy communication and connections, and to bravely build empathy, vulnerability and compassion with one another. You’ll each learn skills to work with each other’s differing attachment styles or attachment wounds that may have contributed to the current breakdown and stalemate of repeating conflict, arguments or disconnect.

I invite you both to bravely explore vulnerability, bring your openness and curiosity, and to take a step forward towards mutual connection.

Here’s what people say…