ROSE GILLIS, M.A., LMHC

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License & State: LH61005663 Washington

Experience

In doing general psychotherapeutic practice for the rural population of Oregon, and then serving as a Trauma Therapist at Harborview (a level 1 trauma hospital), I’ve learned what it means to embrace moments of crisis for my clients, as well as serve marginalized populations. From these experiences, a deeper seriousness and passion for psychotherapy has developed—one that has been forged by the love of clients who inspire me with their grit of overcoming a stacked deck and the privilege to see them through the metamorphosis of crisis-to-change: entering into a period of safety and stabilization, then onto working through the trauma, depression, or anxiety, and finally into a life transformed by the pain, and the awakening of what it means to embrace their story. Moreover, in addition to individual therapy, I have also developed a keen affinity and focus for family and couples counseling, given that I have witnessed that when more of a person’s ‘whole’ life is integrated into therapy, the less a person becomes compartmentalized into ‘issues’—for issues don’t exist in vacuums, but influence and define the systems that first created them. Quite frankly, family and couples work energizes me, as I feel a person stands to gain the most from treating the ‘whole’ rather than just the sum of the parts.

Education

A background in literature and multicultural studies from UCLA has provided me with a rich academic reach in contextual variables, from where to better understand individuality in terms of race, culture, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, and socio-economic determinants. The classroom of life though has equipped me with my most impactful education, giving me intimate knowledge of hardship and resiliency; and further influencing my civic engagements in advocating for the LGBTIQ community and the importance of cultural pluralism. Given my love of people, and both an educated and lived experience of their struggles, I became motivated to work in a service capacity where I could address these hardships, both cognitively, and with genuine presence, on a more daily basis. My graduate training at George Fox University further provided the holistic approach to counseling I was looking for, with an emphasis on spiritual and humanistic integration in psychotherapy, as well as being adjoined with its own nationally recognized trauma institute.