Clinician Spotlight - Jessica Garratt, LGPC

Four Corners Counseling & Well-Being has skilled, experienced, and compassionate therapists, and we want to share some of what makes them special! Jessica specializes in anxiety, depression, stage of life transitions, motherhood, postpartum mood disorders & “baby blues,” attachment trauma, interpersonal boundaries, relationship concerns, existential concerns, highly sensitive people (HSPs), working with artists/writers.

What are three “fun facts” about you?

1. I grew up on a turf farm in Maryland.

2. I love and am very good at ping pong, in my humble opinion.

3. I’ve had one book of poems published.

What brings you joy in your daily life?

I’ve always been a prolific phone-talker and love catching up with old friends that way while out on a walk. It makes me feel full, connected, happy, enlivened. It reminds me I’m known, and that even though I may have changed in several ways across the years (becoming a mother was one especially big identity shift), there are people who have known me through it all and witnessed those changes with love and camaraderie.

Also, while some of family life can feel mired in managing busy schedules and details, I find the most joyful moments happen when we are doing nothing special besides being together—laughing, talking, watching a show, or doing something playful. That lightness and togetherness, when there’s space for it to emerge, gives me a sense of being right where I belong.

Finally, some of the truest moments of joy in my life have been when I was by myself, maybe in nature, or wandering in a familiar or unfamiliar place, or while writing with absorption. This is a quieter joy, almost in a different family than “happy,” but deeply palpable.

Do you prefer tea or coffee? And what is your favorite food/snack?

I like both! Every morning I have a cup of Earl Grey with honey first thing, and then a cup of coffee with breakfast. Peppermint tea at night sometimes.

My most favorite food that I don’t have very often is raw oysters with lemon. My favorite snack right now is probably those little crinkly sheets of salty roasted seaweed. And “woven wheats”/aka Triscuits. 

Are you a dog or a cat person?

Hmm, this is a complicated one for me. But here are the facts: 1. I currently have two cats, and love them very much. 2. I grew up having dogs, and identify more as a dog person overall. 3. I’m probably more cat-like in my personality and habits.

How did you become interested in being a therapist?

Beginning in late high school, early college, I saw psychology as a possible path for myself, though the first vocation I pursued was as a writer, a close reader of literature, and a teacher. But that path actually feels very related to being a therapist. They both value subjectivity and private experiences that are hard to describe. They’re both interested in what it means to be human. They’re both steeped in stories, images, metaphors. In both cases, there’s a relational aspect where connecting to another person (a reader, a therapist) helps the process of discovering what it is you needed to say. And being an avid reader of literature ingrained in me the value of inhabiting others’ perspectives with empathy and curiosity, rather than judgment. This is a primary value I hold as a therapist too.

Being in therapy myself, during a difficult time of transition, also nudged me toward this vocation. I could feel how much it shifted things for me, and how meaningful and natural I found the process, even when it wasn’t easy. It made me want to extend this possibility to others.

What modalities are you drawn to using in the therapy room?

The first modality that stuck with me in a foundational way was psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy. Some of the bedrock elements of this approach I bring with me are: full & open curiosity, emotional attunement, right-brained listening to images and patterns, and exploration of how our past feelings and experiences show up in our lives now and in the relationship between client and therapist.

I also have some background in Jungian depth psychology and love the way this approach calls on our natural draw to stories, images, and symbols that can help illuminate what we’re going through in a meaningful, expansive way (rather than focusing only on symptoms and what’s gone wrong).

I’m beginning to incorporate Internal Family Systems (IFS) into my practice as well and find so much power in bringing into consciousness, and also bodily awareness, parts of ourselves that have been pushed away, or that have become a bit too muscular.

What are your hobbies or aspirations outside of being a therapist?

My hobbies include reading, yoga, ping pong, and walking. I aspire to keep writing poems, since that’s been my most treasured form of expression and creativity. It’s not easy to keep up with alongside family and work life, but I try to set aside a morning here and there where all I have around me are books, a notebook, and time.

I attended my first silent meditation retreats last year, and have started my own (sort of) regular meditation practice. I aspire to keep doing this. It is so easy to let go of, amid the busy-ness of life! But the 5-day retreat I went on was a complete reset for my nervous system and made me feel like I could sense and have contact with the world around me more clearly again, without layers of distracted muck in between—closer to the way I saw the world as a kid. To know that I had a way to return to that feeling of wonder, without turning back time, was a huge revelation for me! And felt empowering.

What helps you to feel calm in life?

I’ve always loved to take walks. No matter how I felt when I set out, by the end of the walk everything feels smoother, looser, and lighter in me. I’ve also kept a journal since I was pretty young, and something about the act of that—seeing my own voice and thoughts materialize, feeling my hand move across the page, hearing the pen scritching the paper—has always been soothing to me. With both walking and journaling, the recipe seems to involve a coming together of my thoughts & feelings, my attention, my senses & movement, and the world around me. It’s like all my scattered frequencies suddenly resonate to the same tuning fork.

Learn more about Jessica’s education and work bio, and schedule a consultation below.