Megan O’Laughlin, LICSW, MFA

My Approach

How does it all work?

When you are ready to address the big things coming up in your life, it’s helpful to work with someone who is experienced, engaged, and invested in your well-being. My main focus is to collaborate with you make meaningful,
lasting changes in your life.

A relational and holistic approach

I use a holistic and integrated approach to therapy, which means I pull from different modalities to create an approach that fits for you. During the first 3-5 sessions, we will make a plan of what our work will look like. Oftentimes, we start out work by building coping skills and then we might turn the focus to processing past events and/or making moves towards important goals and values in your life.

Most of my work with people focuses on these things:

Attaining Emotional Awareness & Regulation

With increased emotional awareness, you can develop healthier coping strategies, improve self-regulation, and enhance your overall well-being. I will help you explore and process your emotions in a safe and non-judgmental space, ultimately paving the way for self-discovery and positive change.

Finding creative, “outside the box” methods to better understand your experiences

Not everyone benefits from the typical approaches to therapy. Together we will explore methods that resonate with your learning style, interests, and goals, which could include using metaphor, writing, in-the-moment practices, or even tapping into intuition through cards and symbolism.

Practicing Strategies & Skills

Using modalities like ACT, DBT, and somatic approaches, I help people learn more about their patterns and experiences including their thoughts, feelings, actions, values, and beliefs. Methods for distraction, regulation, dealing with difficult thoughts, and staying in the moment can be particularly helpful, which we examine through practice, exploration, and ongoing learning.

Tuning into different parts of the self

Living in such a cognitive-focused society, most of us are very aware of our thoughts but not other aspects of our experiences. Tuning into emotions, imagery, and/ or physical sensations can help increase understanding and decrease suffering. Additionally, tuning into our different parts, like our younger parts and protective parts, can help with self-compassion and understanding.

Helping you become an expert in your own life

You bring the expertise about your life and experiences while I bring in my knowledge about therapy. Most of all, I show up as a witness to your life and history. Tuning into your experiences and the story of those experiences can help you recognize how you are impacted by different life events. Re-viewing and re-writing such experiences can help open up new possibilities in your life and your view of yourself.

I have training in the following modalities and regularly incorporate them into the work I do with people:

ACT is a very flexible, action-oriented approach that considers how thoughts and feelings arise and the moves we can make to accept our experiences while acting more in line with our values.
Exposure work helps us confront our fears and can be very helpful for things like anxiety and trauma.
Narrative therapy is a non-pathologizing approach to therapy that comes from storytelling traditions and tunes into how we conceptualize our experiences.
Somatic techniques can help with staying grounded, regulating the nervous system, and directing the mind’s focus to specific experiences.