Hello! My name is Samantha Whelan and I am an LPC currently licensed in Oklahoma, Alabama, and New Hampshire with 12 years of professional experience. I decided to take a sabbatical to raise my two children while continuing to keep up with professional development thru continuing education. During these years the ups and downs of everyday life with family, kids, and friends gave me more insight into personal life struggles than I could have acquired by only reading a textbook or sitting in my office. I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to be able to help people who may be experiencing a personal, family, or relational challenge by providing support, practical feedback, skills-sets and tools that I have acquired in my many years of conducting group and individual psychotherapy sessions. The majority of my professional counseling career was spent prior to the birth of my children. This period of intense focus on my development as a counselor provided me with the chance to develop the capacity to exhibit sympathy and accurate empathy when working with some of society’s most challenging circumstances. During this critical time of professional growth, I had the distinct honor to work with people struggling with the grip of addiction and mental health challenges. Because of the bio-psycho-social nature of the disease of addiction, I was challenged to become competent in addressing a myriad of my clients social, emotional, spiritual, physical, legal, familial, and financial issues caused by the trauma of unhealthy habits and poor decision making. It was during these early years that I developed my own personal style of counseling and psychotherapy. This style of therapy is deeply rooted in the discipline of cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral theory, motivational interviewing, and client centered therapy . These styles allow both you and I to work together during our therapy sessions. I would also like to mention that I myself have been where you are. I have sought out counseling as well and as a counselor myself I had very high standards. I feel like this experience also gave me such great insight into what it felt like to be “on the other side of the desk” and I truly knew how it felt to be heard and validated and I hope that I can make my clients feel the same way. It is my belief that most individuals fall somewhere along a continuum of change. Many times a person’s lack of awareness of where they might be placed on this continuum is a starting point for our counseling sessions. Change doesn’t happen overnight. But, my hope for you is that we can find out what you would like to improve and find out what types of behavior change need to happen in order for you to accomplish your personal growth goals in a safe, confidential setting. Always remember your agenda is my agenda. I look forward to working with you!