Lindsay Plumer

More About Lindsay Plumer

Clinical Interests:

Antenatal and postpartum mood and anxiety-spectrum disorders (certified in perinatal mental health through Postpartum Support International); Certified Lactation Consultant; pregnancy and infant loss/grief; grief; trauma; OCD; spirituality; life transitions; Indigenous practices

Clinical Approach:

I use an integrated approach grounded in interpersonal process theory, family systems theory, and solution-focused therapy. Additionally, my integrated conceptualization is informed by a feminist perspective that acknowledges each person is uniquely impacted by structural and systematic power, privilege, and oppression that inherently frame the contexts of relationships, paradigms, and overall functioning.

I primarily understand clients by recognizing their interactional patterns in interpersonal relationships that are formed from familial attachment and early interactional patterns. I use interpersonal process as viewing therapy as a stage where clients recreate their interpersonal relationships and interactions from the outside world in our sessions and within our working relationship. I believe much of clients’ everyday stress is due to a lack of close, genuine interpersonal relationships and that functioning can be improved if ways of relating are improved. Positive outcomes are seen when clients are able to utilize different, functional ways of relating to others and have their attachment needs met.

I believe displays of personality, beginning at birth, are shaped not only by our genetic makeup but also by our in utero and, later, familial experiences, with forces of nature and nurture interacting throughout the lifespan. I believe these forces perpetually influence and inform each other; genetics are influenced by environments and systems, and individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain ways of interacting or reacting will act accordingly in particular environments or relationships. Therefore, I use a family of origin perspective, as well as biological histories, to account for interpersonal and environmental dynamics. This perspective is especially important when working with culturally vulnerable individuals who have experienced historical trauma and its effects including the loss of culture and its generational influence on genetics (i.e., epigenetics).

Lastly, I take a strengths-based perspective in helping clients set achievable goals to build their self-efficacy, increase problem solving skills and overall functioning, and remain present- and future-oriented. I believe that each client has the strengths and abilities to create change among themselves, and that therapy is simply a process by which to access, emphasize, and develop those strengths to facilitate change. I aim to create egalitarian and collaborative relationships in which clients feel empowered, autonomous, and capable. Ultimately, each person has distinct and important individual and cultural needs that impact her or his level of need and readiness for change. Therefore, I utilize systematic treatment selection and am prescriptive in the use of empirically-supported treatment interventions, occasionally drawing from orientations that better fit specific client needs or particular presenting issues.

Hobbies:

dogs!; avid Volkswagon enthusiast; sea glass hunter; hiking; foodie; tattoos; painting; singing; writing; French horn