Katherine Friedman, LPC

I believe a therapist’s role is to provide supportive guidance, insight, and gentle challenges during a client’s search for healing. Self-knowledge, discovery, and acceptance are the keys to psychological change. I work with my clients to develop curiosity and compassion about themselves and their suffering. With greater self-awareness, life becomes easier to manage, and choices multiply.

My counseling style is characterized by warmth, authenticity, compassion, and humor. I combine relational, cognitive, somatic, and psychodynamic therapies in a holistic approach. Working together, my clients and I create an atmosphere that encourages psychological depth: I serve as a partner, witness, and guide as we uncover the way you think, feel, sense, and understand the world.

I was born and raised in New York City and received my BA from Cornell University and an MA, MPhil. from New York University. I have been working as a counselor in professional settings since 2005. I received a Master’s Degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa — a Mindfulness-driven University in Boulder, CO — in 2008. I have been practicing mindfulness for 23 years and teaching mindfulness practices for 13 years. These practices include yoga, meditation, and contemplative dance.

Before starting private practice in 2014, I worked in Detox, Residential, and Outpatient settings.  I worked with acute cases of both Addiction and Mental Health Disorders in Boulder, CO and here in Portland.

I feel that continued learning is an essential part of my job as a psychotherapist. My current study is focused on relationship therapy and Holistic Sex Therapy. I completed the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center’s year-long seminar in Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in 2014, and continue to study Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at OPC. Additionally, I have years of experience and training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Body-Centered, and Mindfulness- based therapies. I have extensive training in Trauma-informed therapy including the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute’s year-long Level I Training for the Treatment of Trauma taught by Pat Ogden, Ph.D.