RHIANNON THEURER, LMFT

Vegan Therapists in Oregon and California

Therapy for neurodivergent adults and adolescents.

If it’s easy for you to get “lost in your own head” because it’s such an interesting place…

If you are deeply affected by both the beauty and the challenges of our world…

If you’re frequently told how smart you are, but you think you’ve just managed to fool everyone…

If you are tired from looking at everything from multiple angles and lenses, all at the same time…

Here is a space for all the parts of your whole, wonderfully complex self.

Services

Clinical services

I offer 50 minute individual counseling sessions for people located in Oregon and California, where I am licensed. I may be able to meet with people in other areas depending on the licensure requirements in your area.

I meet with most clients weekly.

I offer sessions in person and over HIPAA secure video

Insurance

I am in network with Pacific Source and OHP Jackson Care Connect (Care Oregon). I may be able to bill other OHP networks, depending on their allowances for out of network billing. AllCare does not allow out of network providers to bill them. I can also bill other insurance companies out of network. If you wish to use insurance, I need your insurance information 48 hours before our first meeting to check your benefits. If I do not have this information, we cannot meet.

DBT Skills group

Now forming: DBT skills group designed to be neurodivergent affirming. The Distress Tolerance module will be offered early spring 2023, with Emotional Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness modules to be offered later in 2023 .

Supervision and Consultation

I offer supervision services for pre licensed clinicians in Oregon. Clinical supervision helps therapists develop our craft by strengthening understanding of clinical skills, legal and ethical obligations, as well as how to make this work sustainable. My role as a supervisor is to push you gently toward your growing edges and help deepen your clinical thinking, in the context of a supportive relationship that assumes the best about you and your work.

I welcome supervisees who wish to think critically about how larger social forces of power and oppression are at play in agencies, schools, and the clinical relationship itself. I also especially enjoy working with neurodivergent clinicians and those who want to consider the ways neurodivergence shows up in therapy. I also enjoy offering consultations with clinicians on these subjects as well.

My rates for supervision and consultation are $100 per hourly session. I maintain some sliding scale spots in my practice as well.

Welcome.

I offer relational therapy for people who are passionate, curious, idealistic, intense, and bright — often called “gifted,” though it can feel like anything but a gift. I can also offer insights into the realities of the gifted experience and help you better appreciate the ways giftedness manifests in your self. Often (re)discovering the lens of giftedness can launch a journey to re-examine your history, and to author a new story for yourself.

Popular perception of giftedness focuses on high intellectual ability, but giftedness encompasses many other qualities, such as high levels of empathy, sensitivity, intensity, insight, perfectionism, and the varieties of intelligence: intellectual, emotional, creative, sensual, physical, and existential. Gifted individuals often face unique challenges such as high levels of self-criticism, existential depression (struggling with the meaning of life), and difficulty in finding peers. In addition, gifted individuals are often poorly misunderstood and misdiagnosed by mental health professionals who are unaware of the concept of giftedness.

I am firmly rooted in a relational stance with my clients, which means that I believe that the relationship we develop while working together is the most important element of therapy. It will allow us to understand how you both relate to others as well as all of the parts of your self.

The initial stage of therapy will be primarily focused on us getting to know each other. As a trauma-informed clinician, I want my client to take the lead in determining when you are comfortable sharing your thoughts, experiences, and aspects of self; trust takes time to develop, and I do not push anyone to reveal things before they are ready to do so. I respect the innate wisdom of each client and hold a harm reduction stance, in which I honor the coping mechanisms that have helped you on your journey, even if these coping mechanisms are ultimately not in your best interest and you are ready to let them go.

I am trained in attachment-focused EMDR, which helps resolve traumatic experiences by reprocessing memories on a nervous system level. Often trauma occurs when an experience becomes “stuck” in the limbic system, where our “fight/flight/fawn/freeze” response is activated. We may know something to be cognitively true but at the same time respond as if it were not, which can be a source of huge frustration. Working with the layers of the nervous system can be more helpful than solely focusing on cognitive “talk” therapy. This is a short video that gives a good introduction to EMDR.

While the work we do in therapy is largely internal, I am also keenly aware of the ways in which our various identities shape how we move through the world and how we are treated by other people. I do not see these as “political” issues outside of the therapy room; rather, they are a vital part of our experience and I encourage exploration of these larger issues in therapy. I am also aware of the power differential in our culture between provider and client, and strive to dismantle this by developing a collaborative relationship with the clients I work with.

As someone who works with neurodivergent clients I strive to make my practice accessible to each client’s unique needs. I understand and am comfortable with clients who consistently run late (time blindness is real!) and clients who want minimal eye contact or no eye contact at all. I am adept at navigating tangents. I try to name usually unspoken expectations and norms in therapy, and welcome clarifying questions to help put you at ease.

About Me

I did my undergraduate work in history and English literature at the University of Florida. Having benefited from the life changing work of therapy myself, I went on to earn my master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. I have worked in a variety of settings from crisis lines to integrated clinics to schools (K-12). One of my favorite things about this field is the never ending opportunities to learn, and then bring what I have learned to my clients.

I try to not infodump all that knowledge (even though that is my neurodivergent love language)! I see the therapy room as a workshop space where I bring my education and clinical experience, and we collaborate to find what is most supportive of your healing process.

I am most inspired by my clients’ passionate commitment to being themselves, even if the path is unclear at times. Clients who enjoy working with me tend to like my dark sense of humor, my ability to acknowledge and work with the material realities they are experiencing, and that I bring my real self and real reactions in the therapy room. (I am not the “blank slate” type of therapist.) They appreciate that our discussions include lots of parentheticals, asterisks, and rabbit trails into special interests.

Outside of being a therapist, I enjoy baking, overanalyzing TV shows, and urban walks (usually in search of coffee). I love to spend time with my family and have the delight of being a mother. I am a passionate reader and especially love anything fairytale or mythology related. In the last few years I have been studying flower essences, which I find a really lovely medicine and a powerful way to connect with the non-human world. My favorite stories tend to involve a ragtag bunch of misfits who save the world (Buffy forever). I am grateful to be on this beautiful planet with you.