Meet the Team
Jen Patterson
Founder, LCSW
Hi! I’m so glad you found your way here. My work centers on supporting individuals and couples navigating midlife (35+), perimenopause/menopause related shifts, relationships, neurodivergence (ADHD, HSP, and autism) anxiety, depression, and the lasting impact of earlier life experiences (complex trauma) that may have been carried alone for too long. I also support individuals impacted by cancer or chronic pain/illness who are navigating changes in their bodies and seeking emotional support and integration.
As an AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) therapist, I work from an experiential, relational approach. This means we don’t only talk about what’s happening in your life or gain insight; we slow down together and gently turn toward your emotional experience in the here and now. We nurture what has been carried beneath the surface (often alone), creating enough safety for deeper feelings to emerge, be understood, and offer care to parts of you that have longed to be held.
I believe you have an innate capacity to heal and flourish in life and the medicine of deep care can facilitate the environment needed for that healing.
Whether we ever get the chance to meet and work together or not, I truly hope that you find what you need, desire and long for. Big love to you.
As a little offering from me to you, here is a poem that is special to me that I wrote in a season of exploring the many ways we (re)mother ourselves by observing the natural world, the many mothers:
Another Mother
Like:
The ocean who is not afraid
of my depth
or my darkness + my changing tides
The robin who gathers
and waits
The mama deer in the field
teaching her fawns how to gather
The moon over the mountain tells me that I too, can have phases.
That it’s ok to hide.
That it’s ok to be seen.
Like the mullein leaf
who tends to grief in my breath
Like the soft mimosa flower in her pink promise
to be with my little melancholy
The oat straw
that calms, protects and nourishes my
sensitive nerves
The goldenrod who casts a spell
over old, tender wounds
The blue heron who stays
just long enough
The stingray mama’s instincts that know
how to let go
way too soon.
When I don’t know what to do
when I feel the ache
of homesickness for another place–
For another mother
A mother like me
My bones tell me that
There is another mother
More
Like Me
Look for mothers beyond the womb
You came from
They are everywhere.
Jen Patterson
Jen’s Offerings
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Jen supports individuals seeking help with :
Anxiety
Depression
Life and identity transitions
Grief
Complex trauma
Midlife
Neurodivergence
Cancer support
Chronic pain
Jen has found her home as a therapist in AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy. )You can read more about it here: https://aedpinstitute.org/about-aedp-psychotherapy/# and a short video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yxDWuM0lr4w
$150 for an hour session. Accepts insurance or superbills for private pay.
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Jen supports couples navigating: parenting, neurodivergence and sensory differences, communication, intimacy, empty-nesting, and the complex seasons of loss and grief. She draws from Transformative Couples Therapy (TCT) in her work with couples, supporting partners through ruptures and repairs, deepening understanding, and gently rebuilding connection where it has been strained or lost. You can read more about Transformative Couples Therapy here:https://tctinstitute.org/
Jen takes part in ongoing learning and courses through through the Association for Autism and Neurodiversity to specialize in recognizing, understanding and to effectively treat one or both partners in a neurodiverse relationship.
Every relationship is made up of two unique inner worlds.
When we are feeling connected and safe, it can be easier to navigate our differences. But during moments of stress, conflict, or disconnection, our nervous systems, attachment histories, protective patterns, and sensory needs can collide. Suddenly, the person we love most can feel far away. The therapy room can be a place to slow down and be with what is emerging between the two of in the present moment.
Jen also supports couples who are un-coupling, providing attachment informed support to parents in this tender transition.
Rates for Couples : $175 for 60 minutes, $200 for 80 minutes.
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This winter, I’m offering Wildwood, a small, expressive process-based group exploring the earthy, sacred, and intuitive dimensions of womanhood in midlife. The group will meet monthly for three months, beginning in January, with in-person and virtual options. I’m intentionally keeping the group small to create an intimate, connected space for reflection and creative exploration.
WILDWOOD
An Expressive Arts Circle Exploring the Earthy, Sacred & Intuitive Feminine in MidlifeWildwood is an invitation to explore the tender, transformative territory of midlife through writing, poetry, collage, imagery, movement, nature, ritual, and creative exploration.
Together, we’ll explore themes of identity, grief, desire, aging, motherhood, embodiment, boundaries, and the parts of ourselves that may have been forgotten or pushed aside. We’ll also draw from archetypal and mythic imagery, including the Cailleach and the dark feminine, as doorways into the deeper, often overlooked dimensions of feminine experience.
Our three gatherings will follow a winter arc:
January | The Descent
Winter, shedding, grief, and what we are ready to release.February | The Understory
Desire, intuition, anger, boundaries, embodiment, and the parts of ourselves that live beneath the surface.March | The Stirring
Emergence, creativity, possibility, and what is beginning to awaken.This is not about reinventing ourselves or becoming someone new. It is an invitation to listen for the self that has been here all along.
Investment: $100 per 90-minute gathering, $300 for the three-month circle. Space is intentionally limited to 10.
Please feel free to reach out with questions and to be placed on a list for this group.
Jen’s Story
I am a sensitive creature, an empath, a mother, partner, and aspiring poet who feels life deeply. I am drawn to quiet, intentional moments: slow mornings, tending to relationships with my four grown children, listening to birdsong, engaging in creative rituals, forest trails with my dog, and moonlit conversations with family and friends around a fire. I have learned (am still learning) how to tend to my sensitive nervous system and to honor my body’s natural capacity.
Deep care for people and curiosity about their inner world has been with me since childhood. Motherhood has shaped and deepened this curiosity, teaching me presence and attunement in profound ways. My experience of motherhood has been a kind of initiation into the slow, sacred unraveling of who I thought I was. It broke me open in ways that are both ordinary and mystical, inviting me to become fluent in contradiction: softness and fierceness; exhaustion and devotion; loss of self and deepened self.
I love thrifting with coffee in hand, decorating with vintage finds and tending to my small micro-farm of goats, chickens, and wildflowers within the blue ridge mountain landscape. I’m comfortable talking about the deep, tender things of life: of death, of aging, of grief, of uncertainties, of fear, and yes, of course, the deepest joys and desires.
These parts of me are not separate from my work. My lived experiences inform how I show up with clients as a warm, compassionate, and present companion to both the ache and beauty of being human. I offer an embodied sense of: I’m with you in this. We’ll find a way through together.
Education, Licensure and Trainings
Virginia Commonwealth University, MSW ‘23
Virginia Tech, B.S. Family and Child Development ‘99
VA Department of Health Professions License #0904020444
AEDP Level 1, 2, 3 (currently in level 3).
AANE Neurodivergent Relationship Training (ongoing)
200 HR Yoga teacher training at HYC
Let’s Work Together
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