Hi, I’m Patricia Woods👋

I have always had a deep interest in people—why we do what we do, how we make choices, and how we can see the exact same world so differently. I believe that my own life circumstances drew me into the field of counseling, as is the case for many in this field. Through both my personal and professional experiences, I’ve learned to see life not as a fixed destination, but as a gentle, ongoing iteration of our own growth and change. My own ongoing iteration led me to become a counselor, yoga/meditation instructor, coach, group facilitator and speaker.

Because the pieces of our lives continually change throughout our lifetime, I chose puzzle pieces as my logo. Creating your best life is about learning to recognize what fits at what time, knowing when to let go, and learning not to force. While we often have a specific end game in mind, it is easy to feel blindsided by the unexpected twists and turns life throws our way. I often meet my clients in these spaces where they feel deeply stuck, struggling to come to terms with how a chapter has unfolded.

Developing the skills to sit with intense emotions at these critical junctures is key. In addition to traditional talk therapy, these are the areas where I lean into mindfulness, breathwork, and meditation to teach you how to settle your mind and regulate your nervous system. Supporting you to feel safe as you experience your emotions on both a physical and emotional level allows you to deeply understand the meaning this chapter holds, rather than missing the wisdom that is here for you by trying to avoid the pain.

Professionally, I began my career in Massachusetts, utilizing traditional talk therapies across a variety of settings. Early on, I was exposed to the pioneering mind-body work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and participated in his professional training for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). As I began to see the profound connection between the body and mind, both in my own life and in my sessions, I trained to become a yoga instructor so I could weave these experiential tools directly into my practice.

I became exposed to DBT when I was a clinician at a residential treatment facility for juvenile offenders in Massachusetts, as this therapeutic model was just beginning to be utilized  I was able to create a yoga club at my program, participate in DBT staff trainings, and later received an opportunity to become a consultant for the Department of Youth Services. In this capacity, I became more deeply immersed in DBT as I was part of a team providing staff trainings for residential facilities in the Boston area. This experience continually demonstrated to me the profound benefits of mindfulness and breathwork, and the vital importance of learning to be embodied—feeling truly connected to our bodies rather than just living in our heads. The field of neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to continually grow and evolve, brings to light the power of mindfulness training and its ability to retrain our brain. Through self-awareness, we have the ability to develop new neural pathways that move us in the direction of the positive changes we seek, as well as the ability to diminish the strength of the pathways that hold us captive to old undesirable behaviors.