Rachel Spero-Hoy

If you cannot feel safe to be yourself with me, where can you? I use cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, and I meet you where you are while giving you skills to practice. I also bring in wisdom-based, holistic practices when they fit what we are doing. The plan is one we make together, at your pace.

Cognitive processing therapy is how I help people process trauma, by looking at unhelpful thoughts and replacing them with other perspectives. I use cognitive behavioral therapy focused on depression, on anxiety, on insomnia, and on chronic pain. For depression, that means looking at negative thinking patterns and building other ways of coping. For anxiety, it means working on the thoughts and behaviors linked to it. For insomnia, it means changing habits and the thoughts that get in the way of sleep. For pain, it means looking at thoughts about pain and using behavioral techniques. I also use interpersonal therapy for reproductive mental health, around pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, and supportive therapy when what you need is help coping with what life is doing.

I offer a 15-minute consultation, which I also call a discovery call. You meet me, we talk about what you need and how I could help, and you can ask questions. It is a low-pressure way to decide whether to go on. If we continue, there are 1 to 3 intake sessions. In the first of those we complete an intake assessment and begin a plan. We talk about your mental health history, symptoms, and goals, and we start to know each other. The plan combines your goals, your strengths, and evidence-based interventions. At the start we meet once a week, and a session is typically 45 to 55 minutes.

I work with young adults, adults, and elders. The concerns I see most are stress, burnout, anxiety, trauma, grief, work difficulty, sleep, pain, and relationship or family strain. I also work with LGBTQIA+ clients, neurodivergent clients, women, and people with reproductive mental health concerns. Therapists are a group I work with on purpose, including the weight of the work and burnout. Military, veterans, and first responders are among the people I work with.

I bring warmth, a practical focus, and a wish to build trust quickly. I try to live by the same interventions I share in sessions.

I am a licensed psychologist. I am licensed in Washington. I have worked at VA medical centers in Pittsburgh, Topeka, and Temple, and across Texas on PTSD and mood disorders for VISN 17. I spent years studying PTSD, posttraumatic growth, and resilience, and I have helped veterans through hard moments.