Sally Millsap

My journey began in high school. I was a camp counselor for foster care youth. These camps were the highlights of my summer. One of my core values is the worth of all persons. I was privileged to work in several hospital settings for over thirty eight years. I counseled patients and their families of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. My goals were to empower those most vulnerable so they could heal medically and emotionally. My vision continues to be to assist clients to make the changes in their lives as they face the many challenges that life brings.

My hospital experience has given me the opportunity to work with children, youth and adults who have faced many struggles. These struggles have included being physically, sexually and emotionally abused, being victims of domestic violence and other traumatic events, having chronic illnesses, loosing loved ones and facing many mental health issues such as postpartum depression, anxiety and grief. I use the strengths perspective, solution and trauma focused therapy during most of my sessions. If the client has had therapy in the past, I ask them what they did and didn’t like about their therapy experience. I ask then what they would like to work on and where they would like to start at the beginning of each session.

Building the therapeutic relationship with the client is extremely beneficial for successful therapy. I let the clients know that I do take notes and check mark some of the challenges that I think would be helpful to work on. I believe in building rapport and learning about their current living situation, childhood experiences and any current or past issues they want to bring up. My therapy is flexible to the client needs. One of my most important aspects is to make sure that they are seeing some of their strengths whether it be at work, in a relationship or just personal strengths. I sometimes ask them to write down three things they like about themselves. When they state they can’t think of any, I usually name a couple that I have noticed during the session.