Hilary Steinitz, LCSW
hilary.steinitz@gmail.com
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Integrated somatic, mindfulness-based
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Trauma sensitivity
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Psychodynamic psychotherapy
As a therapist, I am passionate about helping clients to repair deeply held wounds, especially relational wounds, which are often at the core of symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and addictive behaviors. Though I work with clients to help alleviate their troubling symptoms, my work is more fully anchored in the belief that the sensitive exploration of underlying injuries and challenges enables not just symptom-reduction but transformation and growth. I also place great emphasis upon building trust and acceptance within the therapeutic relationship, as a caring clinical relationship is essential to emotional repair in therapy.
I bring to my clinical work both my training and experience as a therapist and other diverse life and work experience as well. I hold an MSW from the VCU School of Social Work and have experience in intensive community treatment as well as in outpatient therapy. As a therapist for four years at The Women’s Initiative, I integrated mindfulness and psychodynamic therapy to help clients heal amid challenges such as anxiety, depression, childhood and more recent trauma and abuse, grief and loss, and relational stress. Additionally, I am a fiction writer and hold an MFA in Creative Writing from UVa. My writing practice impacts my clinical work in many ways: in particular, I am passionate about helping clients to uncover coherence and meaning in their life events, in their strengths, and in their suffering. Finally, I have taught vinyasa yoga in Charlottesville since 2000 and my love of yoga shows up in therapy both explicitly, when I bring bits and pieces of mind-body practice into the session, and implicitly, in the yogic values of spaciousness, mindful attention, and compassionate curiosity that I cultivate in my work with clients.