Archive | Creative and Integrative Therapies

Allison Beer, MSW, LCSW

Allison Beer, MSW, LCSW

Allison Beer, MSW, LCSW

Allison is a licensed clinical social worker providing individual therapy to teens and adults.

Allison provides EMDR and Internal Family Systems therapy to individuals. Her approach is neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, as well as collaborative, down-to-earth and nonjudgmental. At the core of her work is a belief in the transformative power of the therapeutic relationship. Allison believes that meaningful growth and healing are rooted in connection—which is why building strong, trusting partnerships with her clients is central to her practice.

Background

Allison’s journey in mental health began in community mental health and hospital settings, where she supported individuals facing addiction, crisis situations, and systemic barriers. She spent years working in victim services, supporting sexual assault survivors, all of which deepened her understanding of trauma. Beyond her clinical experience, She has also lived in intentional communities all around the world centered on mindfulness and yoga—experiences that continue to inform her holistic, person-centered approach to therapy, emphasizing connection, resilience, and the mind-body relationship.

In her role as therapist, she focuses on helping clients reconnect with themselves, build resilience, and move toward healing.

Specialties

Allison loves to support individuals navigating:

  • Anxiety & Depression
  • PTSD
  • Grief & Loss
  • Challenging life transitions
  • Relationship stressors
  • Low self-esteem
  • Struggles related to being neurodivergent (ADHD, Autistic, AuDHD, and more) in a world that caters itself to neurotypical minds

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS is a research-backed therapy that helps you understand and heal all parts of yourself. We all have parts—some examples include inner critics, perfectionists, planners, strivers, and people-pleasers. Our parts aren’t bad; they’re simply trying to help or protect us, even if the impact of their behavior can be frustrating. Rather than pushing them away, IFS encourages us to get curious about our parts and our systems. As an IFS therapist, I help you build a deeper connection with these parts, cultivating healing, self-acceptance, and greater balance in your life.


Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

EMDR is an evidence-based, trauma-focused therapy that follows an eight-phase structured approach to help the brain process distressing memories and reduce their emotional intensity. EMDR supports the nervous system in integrating past experiences so they feel less overwhelming. This process fosters deep healing, resilience, and lasting relief from trauma, anxiety, and other emotional challenges, empowering you to move forward with greater ease and clarity. Learn more about EMDR in this video.


Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy

Neurodiversity-affirming therapy is about embracing and honoring neurodivergence (Including and not limited to Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, Dyslexia, etc) as a natural variation of human experience, not something to be fixed. It’s about accepting who you are, rather than trying to change you. In this approach, we focus on understanding and supporting you in navigating challenges, while valuing your unique strengths. The goal is to help you build confidence and self-compassion, so you can show up fully as yourself in a world that often misunderstands or marginalizes neurodivergent identities.

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Lucas Valitski, MS

Lucas Valitski, MS

Lucas Valitski, MS is a Master’s Level Counselor & Child-Centered Play Therapist.

Lucas specializes in child-centered play therapy for children aged 3–12, focusing on trauma, ADHD, and autism. Through a compassionate and empowering approach, he helps children navigate emotional challenges, develop resilience, and gain essential skills for emotional regulation and healing.

Experience

Lucas has  experience as a school therapist in the Philadelphia school district, where he provided individual and group counseling for students from kindergarten to 8th grade. During his time at Creative Health, he specialized in play therapy for children with trauma, ADHD, and autism, creating safe and supportive spaces for children to express themselves freely through play. Lucas is a Master’s level, pre-licensed Counselor working under the supervision of Elizabeth Campbell, LPC, as part of the Mentorship Program. He sees clients at both the Flourtown and Schwenksville offices.

Specialties

Lucas offers individual therapy focused on emotional regulation, enhancing communication and social skills, developing problem-solving abilities, and facilitating healing from trauma.

Neurodiversity: ADHD and Autism

Lucas specializes in neurodiversity and works closely with children with ADHD and autism, using play therapy as a valuable tool to help them express themselves and learn new skills. Lucas creates a nurturing environment for growth and development by tailoring his approach to the unique needs of each child. His ultimate goal is to provide children with the tools they need to gain confidence and successfully navigate the world around them.

Child-Centered Play Therapy

Lucas believes that play therapy engages a child’s natural imagination, providing a safe space for them to process significant events, work through emotions, and make sense of their surroundings. Through play, children develop key life skills like problem-solving, emotional regulation, communication, and social interaction. Lucas’ approach not only helps children navigate challenges, but it also builds resilience and confidence in a way that feels natural and enjoyable to them.

Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT)

Lucas also utilizes CBPT, a structured approach to play, to help children solve problems, build relationships, and develop emotional resilience. This method encourages cognitive and emotional growth while fostering positive behaviors and emotional regulation through playful exploration.

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Somatic Therapy

Somatic Therapy is a method of integrating emotions, intuition, and bodywork. It is an alternative healing approach that uses gentle touch and talk together to help people listen to their bodies, and deal with the stresses in their lives. The foundation of the work is grounded in gentleness, respect, openness, understanding, noticing, and discovery.

For more information go to: https://thesomatictherapycenter.com/

Practitioners

Brittiney George, BS, CSS, CEIM

Brittiney George

Brittiney George, BS, CST, CRS, ICI, CEIM

I have always been fascinated by the bodymind connection and the power touch can have in healing.  I love that the intention of this practice is to listen to the body instead of trying to “fix” it.

I am especially passionate about working with highly sensitive/intuitive women to help them to find their authentic voice and feel empowered by their ability to feel deeply.

For a free introductory session contact Brittiney at movebackintolife@gmail.com or (610) 389-7866.
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Andrea McGady, M.Ed.

Andrea McGrady

Andrea McGady, M.Ed., is a mindfulness-based counselor who offers meditation and mindfulness classes.

She has been leading weekly meditation classes at The Resiliency Center since 2020, developing Zoom-based mindfulness exercises and guided visualizations that supported participants through the pandemic. Her ongoing group meditation class provides meaningful opportunities for reflection and connection with self and others.

Andrea earned her Master’s Degree of Education in Counseling Psychology at Temple University. She believes that every person has within them the capacity for meaningful change and aspires to create a safe, supportive environment in which this growth can occur.

She has led group programs on topics of stress management and communication and loves inviting group participants to welcome greater self-compassion and happiness. Her calming voice and gentle approach support others in navigating life stressors with greater peace, clarity, and perspective. Andrea brings a rich understanding of the interplay between mind, body, and spirit — and how mindfulness practices can be used successfully to help people with a wide range of current difficulties.

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Elizabeth Campbell, MS, LPC

Elizabeth Campbell is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and is certified in EMDR.

She provides Integrated play therapy, EMDR therapy, and supervision. She specializes in support for Highly Sensitive people, help for helpers, and EMDR therapy for a variety of needs.

I began my work in the counseling field in community mental health in a program that served children at risk for out of home treatment.

This gave me experience in crisis interventions, working with a variety of concerns in children and adults, and in family therapy. My work continued in victim services, where my knowledge of support for individuals that have experienced trauma expanded and my training in mindfulness as a tool for healing began. In the years that I have worked in private practice, my work with children, families, and individuals that have endured trauma has continued. I also specialize in working with Highly Sensitive People and children to support them in managing their unique strengths and challenges. I welcome child, adolescent, and adult clients experiencing depression, anxiety, PTSD, mood disorders, and issues surrounding grief and loss, transitions, abuse, and trauma.

In addition, as a Licensed Professional Counselor, RPT-S, and EMDR Consultant-in-Training, I am open to supporting counselors in expanding their professional knowledge and experience while they work towards licensure or certification.

My areas of expertise are child and family therapy, play therapy, parenting, trauma treatment, mindfulness, and a variety of treatment modalities grounded in humanistic counseling. I also specialize in blending IFS and EMDR as well as EMDR and play therapy. I am passionate about supporting helpers in building their awareness and prevention of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue.

Play Therapy

The ability to express oneself is directly correlated with one’s developmental level. Therefore, children express themselves in much different ways than adults and require different therapeutic interventions than traditional talk therapy. Elizabeth provides a variety of mediums for children to express themselves through their language: play. She is trained in Child-Centered Play Therapy and in Eliana Gil’s Integrative Model of Play Therapy for children that experienced trauma. She also partners with parents in Filial Therapy, which builds strong relationships with children and supports parents in creating consistent structure at home.

Elizabeth Campbell's office

Elizabeth Campbell’s office

Creative Counseling for Adolescents

The developmental task of adolescents is to create a sense of identity. Elizabeth’s humanistic, client-centered, empowerment approach, founded in the individual’s strengths supports teenage clients in doing just this. Elizabeth also utilizes creative, mindful, and expressive strategies to engage teens and promote change inside and outside of sessions.

Trauma-Informed Care

In this approach to treatment, the clinician asks “what happened to you” rather than “what’s wrong with you.” Trauma impacts the whole individual. Elizabeth’s holistic, humanistic approach addresses the whole person and provides support in moving forward with one’s life.

Elizabeth is a certified sexual assault counselor and is trained in a variety of trauma-specific treatment modalities including EMDR Therapy, the Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Trauma Art Narrative Therapy, and Eliana Gil’s Integrative Model of Play Therapy.

Elizabeth Campbell's office

Elizabeth Campbell’s office

Workshops and Mind-Body Treatment

Elizabeth has had the joy of combining a personal passion, yoga, with her professional path through workshops and groups to bring yogic principles into treatment and subsequently, into one’s life. Elizabeth runs ongoing groups and workshops that address emotional healing through a combination of yoga and therapy as well as bringing these and mindfulness principles into individual sessions.

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Elizabeth Venart, MEd, NCC, LPC
Founder and Director of the Resiliency Center

Elizabeth Venart is the Director of The Resiliency Center and a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Pennsylvania.

She is also a National Certified Counselor through the National Board of Certified Counselors.

Elizabeth has 25 years of experience in providing counseling, clinical supervision, and training services. For nearly ten years, she worked in non-profit crime victim centers providing individual and group counseling—as well as crisis intervention and critical incident stress management services—to women, children, and men impacted by traumatic grief and crimes of violence. Elizabeth also worked as a school counselor for seven years—at an independent school for boys and with an alternative school for children with emotional, behavioral, and learning challenges.


Elizabeth Venart’s counseling office

Individual, Couples, and Group Counseling

Elizabeth’s counseling specialties include trauma and anxiety, job burn-out and career transition, and working with people who are highly sensitive, empathic, creative, and intuitive. She also supports couples to identify current patterns and create changes that allow for greater compassion and intimacy.

A Person-Centered Approach

The foundation of Elizabeth’s work with individuals, couples, and groups is relational. Before any other work can occur in counseling, an atmosphere of respect and safety must be developed within the relationship.

Trusting in the power of individuals to find their own solutions to life’s difficulties, she uses a person-centered therapy approach in her work with clients—working as a facilitator and coach to help people discover and access their inner resources. Bringing a trauma-informed perspective to her work, Elizabeth recognizes that unresolved grief and hurt are often at the root of individuals feeling stressed, “stuck,” or unhappy.


Strategies and Solutions for Healing

Elizabeth recognizes that people come to therapy looking for information and resources to help them, especially when struggling to create new patterns in their relationships or working to overcome experiences of grief and trauma.

Cognitive Therapy

She uses principles from mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to help clients learn to identify how their thoughts can contribute to or help lessen their experiences of pain—and to learn various methods for slowing down their mind so that they can more fully experience the present moment.

EMDR

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a comprehensive, trauma-informed therapy that integrates mindfulness, cognitive therapy, and insights from neuroscience to get to the root of the symptoms, triggers, and obstacles that bring people to therapy.

Elizabeth is a Certified EMDR Therapist and an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant. She offers individual and group consultation to therapists seeking to strengthen their EMDR Therapy skills and gain certification. She has undergone several advanced training programs on the use of EMDR with children, severe trauma, and dissociation. She is experienced in using EMDR to facilitate clients’ successful healing from trauma, grief and anxiety.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapy approach that recognizes and respects the complexity of each person’s inner world.  Inner conflict between parts (often recognized as having competing beliefs and desires) is often at the root of anxiety, depression, indecisiveness, and dissatisfaction. By listening deeply to all parts of self, we can have greater ease in our lives, greater compassion for ourselves, and less distress and reactivity.

One example of an inner conflict that might arise among parts could be as follows: (1) Part of you looks outside on a sunny day and really wants to go on hike, (2) Part of you is determined to clean the house because company is coming tomorrow, (3) Part of you feels pulled to visit a sick friend, and (4) Part of you feels overwhelmed by the choices and just wants to stay in bed. When we begin to understand our inner conflicts through the lens of IFS and parts, we develop an ability to see our struggles more clearly and with greater compassion. In couples therapy, this lens leads to deeper understanding about habitual reactions and patterns and, ultimately, greater intimacy and connection.

Highly Sensitive Persons

Elizabeth provides a safe, emotionally attuned healing environment in which Highly Sensitive persons (HSPs) can heal emotional wounds and move towards greater self-understanding and acceptance. Our work focuses on helping HSPs validate and appreciate their strengths and learn effective coping strategies for living in a world where the majority of people are not highly sensitive.

Group Counseling

In her groups, Elizabeth provides opportunities for individuals to connect with others, tap into their strengths, participate in activities and discussions designed to promote greater self-awareness, and receive support in creating positive changes in their lives.


Laughter Yoga

Elizabeth Venart became Certified as a Laughter Yoga Instructor in 2011. Laughter yoga is a fun and uplifting form of exercise that combines playful laughter exercises with deep yoga breathing. The proven health benefits of laughter include reducing stress, improving mood, increasing cardiovascular health, lowering blood pressure, and generally helping people feel more relaxed and comfortable in their bodies and in the world. Elizabeth leads laughter yoga classes at The Resiliency Center, works individually with people teaching them laughter yoga, and integrates laughter yoga into her professional trainings and Resiliency Retreats.


Clinical Supervision and Training Programs for Health Care Professionals

Elizabeth provides clinical supervision and training programs to individuals, groups, and organizations and is available to provide LPC supervision to counselors seeking licensure. She has over ten years of experience supervising counselors across a variety of settings.

Clinical Supervision

Her approach to LPC and clinical supervision is rooted in a humanistic, relational framework. She supports counselors in deepening their understanding of clients’ challenges and goals, identifying any obstacles to empathy and mindfulness, and providing concrete strategies to promote change. She helps counselors cultivate a trauma-informed perspective and invites them to listen for stories of resiliency.  Elizabeth also provides career guidance to counselors as well as vicarious trauma consultations to both individuals and organizations.

Training Programs for Professional Helpers

Elizabeth has been providing training programs to professional helpers since 1996. She has presented at the local, regional, and national levels, and her strength lies in making the material come to life for participants through reflective exercises, dialogue, and opportunities for creative expression and the development of personal insights.Her training specialties include trauma, vicarious trauma, counselor wellness, team-building in organizations, and creativity development.

From 2003 through 2007, Elizabeth served on the American Counseling Association’s Task Force on Impaired Counselors. Part of her work on the task force included the development of effective intervention programs to facilitate counselor wellness and serving as a co-editor for a special journal issue on counselor wellness through the Journal of the Counseling Association for Humanistic Education and Development.

Elizabeth was an adjunct instructor with the Behavioral Health Counseling Sciences Program of Drexel University from 2003 -2008. She taught Group Counseling I and II, Theory and Practice of Counseling, Assessment and Treatment Planning, and Cognitive Therapy II.

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