Gabrielle Javier, LPC
Gabrielle Javier, LPC
Licensed Professional Counselor
“In order to empathize with someone’s experience, you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be”
– Brene Brown
As a counselor, my utmost priority is to be able to provide my clients with a space where they can feel safe to be who they are without judgment or expectation. I believe that everyone has the potential to be the best versions of themselves. I meet my clients where they are and will walk alongside them as they embark on their journey to self-awareness, self-discovery, and healing.
My path to being a mental health counselor began when I worked as a psychiatric clinic assistant for a non-profit organization with the goal of pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Through my work in this position, I witnessed first-hand how difficult the accessibility and affordability for personal counseling was despite the significant need for it. My passion for counseling was ignited when I realized that many of the individuals I was assisting were being seen mainly to reduce their mental health symptoms and medicinal side effects but were not being provided the space to speak of their own personal experiences. I strongly believe in the significant healing that came from providing empathy and seeing a client’s experience from their point of view. I realized that I wanted to contribute to mental health through a genuine, empathic, and unconditional relationship with my clients. After this experience, I decided to pursue a degree in Counseling instead.
I counsel from a person-centered approach but I incorporate skills from other counseling theories, such as CPT, CBT, and Expressive Arts therapy, etc., based on what best fits clients’ needs. I am an avid lover of anime, video games, D&D, and K-pop which I include in my therapeutic practice. I love using examples from pop culture as a means to relate to my clients and/or provide them with different perspectives (I love using metaphors!). I also love playing video games with my clients in session. Video games and play allow clients to freely express themselves without the pressures of daily life, which helps me see your authentic self. Whether the video game itself is a therapeutic tool that we can use to learn more about yourself or is a means to break the ice, it is something that I love to incorporate in session if clients are willing.
Games that I like to use in session include, but are not limited to:
- Depression Quest
- A Night in the Woods
- Super Mario Brothers
- MarioKart
- Gris
- Celeste
- Unravel Two
- Minecraft
- Stardew Valley
- A Short Hike
- It takes two
- Pico Park
- Animal Crossing
- Overcooked
- Castle Crashers
- Undertale
- Deltarune
- Omori
- Don’t Starve Together
- Oneshot
- Ori and the Blind Forest
- Hollow Knight
I strongly believe in a warm, flexible, and collaborative approach to counseling wherein I support and works together with you in order to reach your goals. I recognize that each individual has their own unique personal experience and path to recovery, which is why I strive to provide a holistic approach that takes your age, culture, heritage, language, faith, gender identity, sexual and affectual orientation, life experience and beliefs into account. I facilitate self-awareness and self-growth through providing both psychoeducation and an authentic counseling relationship. In order to best provide for my clients, I do my best to increase my skillset and get trained and educated in many different areas.
While Gabrielle is available to help with just about anything life can present, some areas of interest include:
- Sexual/Physical Abuse
- LGBTQIA+ Concerns
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Self-esteem
- Life Transitions
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Chronic Illness
- Self-harm
- Suicidal ideations
- PTSD/Trauma
- Sexuality
- Gender Identity
- Sex Positive Therapy
- Mindfulness
- Teen/Adolescent specific concerns 15+
- Grief/Loss
- Stress Management
- Trainings Include:
- EMDR Trained
- Person-centered Therapy
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)