Kelly Sobczak, PhD, LMHC

Eating disorders are challenging, multi-systemic illnesses to overcome, but with help, recovery is possible! Eating disorders are complex, affecting the individual living with one and their family, friends, and life as a whole. Most often an eating disorder is not really about food but rather other underlying, unresolved issues or traumas. Generally, the eating disorder plays some sort of role in giving the person a sense of safety, control, protection, coping, or a number of other things.

​Kelly has a passion for helping those who live with eating disorders. She has several years of experience and training in working with eating disorders, body image, and related concerns. Her integrative therapeutic style, including ACT, Parts Work/IFS, EMDR, and family counseling allows her to address eating disorders from multiple angles. She uses an interdisciplinary approach by coordinating care with medical providers, psychiatrists, registered dieticians, and other specialists and caregivers. Additionally, Kelly obtains 30-40 CEU hours of training focused on eating disorder theory, research, and treatment each year and attends a monthly peer consultation group with leading clinicians in the field.

Those who live with chronic illnesses have a unique experience with mental health and the healthcare system. Oftentimes, chronic illness takes things from you that you really value or look forward to, and there is sometimes a sense of grieving the loss of those things. Maybe you've lost your ability to work, socialize, further your education, or travel. Maybe you are frustrated with dealing with healthcare providers or feel you are unable to get the care you need and deserve. 

Having a therapist who understands these issues is crucial to finding your mental wellness despite your chronic illness. Kelly has worked with many people who resonate with the experience described above, and by providing them first with the validation and the "I believe you" that they often don't receive in healthcare, the process of healing their relationship with chronic illness and/or disability can begin. Strategies Kelly uses in addressing chronic illness and mental health include ACT and values work, self-compassion work, self-advocacy, education on healthcare and personal rights, assistance with accessing community resources, DBT skills training, strengths-based solution-focused therapy, and trauma-informed therapies such as EMDR when appropriate.

Sexual and religious trauma can be some of the most complex types of trauma and are often the basis for Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). The interpersonal nature of these types of traumas can deeply affect a person's way of relating with themselves, others, and the world around them long after the trauma has occurred. As a result, many people are uncertain of how to function successfully in their daily lives after a sexually traumatic event or while working to understand the impact of religious trauma. Providing therapy for a trauma of this kind requires a deep understanding of the nature, origin, outcomes, and effects and how to go about healing each aspect of a person's experience. Kelly has experience working with individuals who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, rape, incest, pornographic blackmail, abusive purity culture, sexual manipulation in marriage, stalking, and domestic violence. Additionally, Kelly has worked with people with religious trauma related to experiences in the following groups/situations:  LDS, Amish/Mennonite, Independent Fundamental Baptists, Brethren, Charismatic/Evangelical, Jehovah's Witness, and the troubled teen industry.

Trauma can present itself in a lot of ways and not always in the stereotypical way we often think. If you have experienced events that continue to have a negative effect on your ability to live your life to the fullest, perhaps you have experienced a measure of trauma that can be addressed to help you move forward. Trauma counseling does not necessarily require you to dive into your memories and talk about the details of the event, unless it is crucial to repairing your way of thinking and feeling about it and its effects. Identifying contexts, beliefs, behaviors, and relational concerns from a theme-perspective can be an effective way of addressing trauma, helping you to make the effects of those events productive rather than intrusive in your life. Additional ways trauma can be addressed in therapy is through EMDR and Parts Work/IFS.

Part of exploring and developing your self-identity involves considering various aspects of your belief systems. Sometimes this can cause a lot of distress. Whether you are trying to make sense of your spiritual beliefs, your understanding of sexuality, or how those concepts exist together, it is such important and sensitive work. Kelly provides a supportive environment for you to bring concerns of faith, spirituality, religion, and sexuality and work toward best understanding your beliefs and identities within. She does this through focusing on your personal values and strengths to assist you in defining the things that create meaning and purpose in your life and inform your personal identity. Through understanding this, you are more clearly able to establish a vision of what you would like your life to look like and how to take steps to get there. Kelly is sensitive to the many belief systems that people hold and is careful to minimize the influence of her personal values on your self-discovery process.