Meet Andrea Norstad

I view therapy as a story told between therapist and client. I ask questions and provide reflections to untangle complicated thoughts and feelings. I love working with adults of all ages exploring authentic self-expression and managing intense experiences in their lives. I also appreciate sitting with people who are living with grief and loss, coping with complex trauma, or navigating their relationship to substances and compulsive behaviors.

During sessions, we may explore patterns and beliefs from the past that were once helpful but now block growth and self-expression. We might discover parts of the self that want opposing things or hold different values. Experiences of shame and loss can surface to be tended to and spent time with. The everyday ups and downs of life are reported on and held with laughter, tears, compassion, and courage. And throughout, we turn toward ourselves and the present moment, which is where our work always begins.

I take a person-centered and humanistic approach to therapy, recognizing that we are living in a time of overwhelming existential and material concerns. I work from an anti-oppression and decolonizing perspective and value learning about my clients’ intersecting identities and backgrounds and how they are impacted by racial and cultural stress. I also want to learn about and witness how these identities contribute to passion, creativity, and belonging.