johanna’s story

Hello! I’m Johanna (she/her).

I am originally from the East Coast and have lived in the Pacific Northwest for long enough now to feel like this is home. I grew up in a family that valued a close relationship with nature and living in connection with plants and animals. I learned at a young age the importance of having access to outdoor spaces and how these places are healing to the human spirit.

I come from a client centered, collaborative, strengths based background where I offer a conversational approach to getting to the root of the obstacle or blockage in the client’s life. I prefer a non-judgemental and honest way of connecting in order to create a strong foundation of openness and trust that we can work from and continue to build on over time through our work together.

My intention is to co-create goals and interventions that make sense for the client’s life and level of readiness. It is important to me to meet the person where they’re at and go from there. Ideally, the therapy space feels warm and welcoming, where the person can feel safe and open to express what they need.

The work I do with clients is very holistic and intuitive. I prefer to work from a place of strengthening the client’s relationship with the self through self compassion and mindfulness, in order to grow self awareness. I’ll also use humor at times, as I feel laughter is useful and necessary!

In my free time, I enjoy adventuring around this wonderful place we call home and hanging out with my teenager, who is thankfully game for most things. Hiking, camping, harvesting wild foods and medicine, swimming, reading, writing, doing art of any kind, hanging out in the garden, traveling, and trying new recipes are some of my favorite things to do.

And now for the professional stuff:

I graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology with a focus on Women and Gender Studies and I hold a Masters degree in Social Work from Portland State University. I completed my advanced year clinical internship at the National University of Natural Medicine working as a clinical therapist in the student counseling center.

My past experience has been working with people who are experiencing anxiety and depression, healing from trauma, grief and loss, divorce and coparenting, spiritual abuse and awakening, family issues, generational trauma, pregnancy and postpartum, sexuality and intimacy, life transitions, and help with relationships.

I lean on the use of motivational interviewing, attachment theory, attention training, family systems, strengths based collaboration, and some spirituality based tools. The work I do with clients is grounded in harm reduction and trauma informed care with an anti-oppressive lens.

I am a registered CSWA in the state of Oregon (A11294) and I am supervised by Katya Ludwig, LCSW.

See our fees and insurance page to determine if Johanna is in network with your insurance plan.

You can reach Johanna directly at johanna@sprouttherapypdx.com