new story haven

Healing through relationship, creative expression, and radical imagination.

New Story Haven was created for anyone who has felt trapped in a cycle.

Whether it's with another person, addiction, religion, system, or your own mind, the dynamics are similar in their function and impact. If you feel too drained, disoriented, and hopelesss to find a way out, please know that you do not have to figure it all out alone. We can move toward safety and healing together.

New Story Haven offers evidence-based therapeutic services to empower you to break out of harmful cycles and write new stories based in a paradigm of compassion and safe, loving connection. No matter what negative stories about yourself you may have internalized, you are not beyond reach and you are deserving of safety and support.

Writing a new story for yourself means breaking free of the cycle.

There are many reasons why you may want to break free - maybe the cycle you are caught in is abusive or harmful, maybe you are exhausted and ready for a change, or maybe the old story just isn't true anymore. The present moment always holds possibility, and cultivating agency and imagination can empower you to write, tell, and live new stories. Your life is a creative endeavor. At any moment, you can begin to imagine the ways your story could transform, and you can begin to take action aligned with the new direction you want to go, even if it means carving out your own path. There is a life waiting for you on the other side of the old story.

Haven means a place of safety or refuge.

The right therapeutic relationship can function as a container for healing work to happen, beginning with safety and moving toward embodiment and authentic expression. Especially when the wounding occurred in the context of relationships, relationships can be the place where we learn again, or maybe for the first time, what safe, nurturing connection feels like.

What is safety?

Safety means more than just protection from physical harm. It also means predictability, consistency, and security. In therapy, safety means clear and consistent expectations, boundaries, and communication. It means freedom from judgment and coercion, especially from the way the dynamics of power are weaponized in relationship in attempts to manipulate and control. Safety requires intentional effort and attention to relational power dynamics, and the responsibility to establish and maintain safety in a therapeutic relationship is on the therapist. Maintaining that work and clear communication around it is my commitment to you. The approach to therapy offered at New Story Haven is one rooted in collaborative alliance, where you are invited to develop your agency and reclaim self-trust and self-confidence.

What is healing?

Therapy can be beneficial in many ways, but often it is used to help individuals learn to cope better under circumstances that may not be ideal for cultivating wellness. Sometimes just surviving is the best we can do because so many things are outside of our control, but in cases where we have the opportunity to move beyond survival, we may begin to access healing.

If healing is the goal, it's worth asking the question - what is healing?

While the following does not provide a comprehensive definition, it may offer some useful ways to begin to conceptualize healing and shared language for communicating about what we are up to as we pursue it together.

Expansion:

Growing beyond the original wound,

making space for it without being defined by it.

Alchemy:

Using your experience as fertile soil to generate

something meaningful and valuable.

Embodiment:

Learning to feel safe in your body again

and reconnecting with your emotions.

Transformation:

Evolving into new forms and expressions of yourself,

creating new experiences, and shifting patterns.

Creative Expression:

Reclaiming your voice and vision, connecting with your imagination,

and bringing something new to life.

Movement:

Connecting with and finding balance in the ongoing dynamic motion

happening within, through, and around you.

Right Relationship:

Orienting to the mutual interdependence of all living beings

and alignment in your place within it.

Accountability:

Being empowered to take ownership of your story

and live in alignment with your values.

Acceptance:

Being liberated from attachment to whatever hurt you

in a way that allows you to live free from identification with it.

Progress:

Finding yourself in a different place than where you were before.

Healing can take many forms and doesn't have to be limited to a singular comprehensive definition. Ultimately, you have a say in what healing looks like for you and how you will know when you experience it. This can be an ongoing conversation throughout the therapeutic process where you are empowered to move toward the life that you want to lead on your terms.