Welcome to Raise Up Counseling, a flight of therapists in Ankeny Iowa, committed to helping you find your wings. Like the doves in our symbol, we fly alongside you, providing support and guidance until you're ready to soar on your own. We specialize in helping moms and dads, as well as those healing from relationship and attachment wounds or trauma. We offer a variety of specialized therapies, including Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), Enneagram, Transforming the Experience Based Brain (TEB), Bringing Home Baby, and EMDR.
Through Raise Up Counseling, we offer a welcoming, cozy, safe nest, where you can come as you are. We’ll help you prepare your flight by practicing new skills in therapy, so you can take them with you into your daily life. We’re part of your team, ready to guide you and provide a soft landing as you find your wings – and eventually fly on your own.
We are passionate about helping you navigate your own journey, while holding space for you to work through your experiences and to raise you up from attachment wounds, relationship challenges, loss, grief, parenting adjustments, and self discovery. Together, we will help you uncover who you are and find clarity and direction in your life. This will happen in partnership with the therapist and find clarity and direction in your life. This will happen in partnership with the therapist YOU choose.
We believe the best way forward is together. The strength to heal is already inside you. It’s what helped you reach out for support in the first place. You’ll have two feet – and sometimes four paws, if Winston is in your session – walking alongside you on your healing journey until you’re ready to fly, collaborating to create a path that feels right for you.
We are not “blank wall” therapists. Authenticity and connection are the foundations of our approach; we’ve “undone” the training from graduate school that teaches us to not be a person. This means you will be able to read our genuine reactions, emotions, we won’t lie, and we show up as we are to model you showing up as you are. We value honesty, transparency, informed consent, and questioning. We welcome the hard questions, we show up in the tough moments, you will see us laugh, cry, and be a real person alongside you in this journey of life. We strive to not push past your comfort zone too fast or too directly, we will honor your path and listen to your voice and allow for the uncomfortable and messy to be a part of sessions just as much as laughter and joy can be a part of sessions.
Whatever has brought you to therapy, whether it’s for the first time or the tenth time, it is our goal to help you see the mechanisms of your mind and body that have kept you safe and brought you here. We see your desire to live a different life and will help sift through what YOU would like to stay, modify, or try and change completely. We welcome all parts of you into our office to work towards the new path you see for yourself or find for yourself along the way. We will meet you exactly where you are right now, offering gentle guidance and therapeutic partnership to push you in the direction you would like to be, utilizing our training and techniques to support your healing. We are committed to flying alongside you on your journey, as long as you will have us with you.
To help you find the journey and create a roadmap, we put you and your needs at the center, with some gentle exploration on our part. You are a person – not a diagnosis – and you deserve an informed choice and awareness about your own file, progress, and input on our work together. We believe in asking, questioning, and gaining clarity if it appears uncertain. Each therapist comes from a different “lens” that shapes how they see the world, their work as a therapist, and what they are passionate about. Below are some of the areas we focus on, and each individual dove’s page can help you explore what they offer as a therapist:
Anxiety with parenting
Attachment Trauma
Body Work
Christian Counseling
Grief and Loss
Infertility
Pregnancy, Perinatal, and Postpartum adjustments – fresh baby to adult child – for moms and dads!
Relationship Concerns
Religious Trauma
Self-esteem issues
Trauma and PTSD
Uncertainty in yourself and your direction in life
Our approach blends our training and worldviews to create a plan that works best for you. We'll collaborate to set and customize your goals, ensuring they align with your ideal vision and check in often to make sure it's sitting well your system! We see you as the unique person you are, and we'll create a living plan that evolves with you, whether that's in three months or three years. We see you as a wholly unique person, which means your goals are a living document.
