Wholehearted Wellness: Transform Challenges Into Strength with Jennifer Riddle, MS, tLPC-MHSP
/Meet Forward Counseling’s new provider, Jennifer Riddle, MS, tLPC-MHSP! With the right tools and approaches, Jennifer helps you transform life's challenges into strengths that wholeheartedly unlock your full potential.
Jennifer Riddle, a compassionate and skilled mental health counselor, provides a safe and supportive space for individuals navigating life's challenges. With a focus on the whole person, she utilizes a variety of therapeutic approaches, including Trauma-Focused CBT, Mindfulness, and Person-Centered Therapy, to help clients heal from past traumas, overcome anxiety and depression, and address concerns related to identity, gender, and sexuality. Jennifer is particularly interested in working with LGBTQ+ individuals and those with disabilities, ensuring a compassionate and inclusive environment for all.
Beyond her clinical expertise, Jennifer is a warm and approachable individual with a deep understanding of the human experience. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her dogs and engaging in hobbies like gaming and reading.
Join our Q&A session with our newest provider at Forward Counseling and discover how Jennifer Riddle can help you on your healing journey.
1. What inspired you to become a mental health counselor?
When I was in college, I decided to try going to therapy at my college’s counseling center after realizing the strange symptoms I was having were classified as anxiety. I made some really important insights during my time with that therapist, and I experienced surprising relief from some of my emotional pain. After that, I hoped someday to help others achieve more understanding of how their mind works and to gain relief from their own emotional pain that is holding them back from living the life they want to live.
2. Can you tell us more about what it means to create a "safe space" for your clients? What does that look like in practice?
There are a lot of elements that go into creating a safe space. The most common elements of creating a safe space in therapy often involve building empathy and trust while maintaining confidentiality.
But I think a less commonly talked about element is the act of keeping an open collaboration with the client and staying open to feedback. This means that I am always trying to stay flexible because what I may think is the issue at hand may be different from what the client is experiencing during different sessions. Feedback is another important way that I try to maintain a safe space. When I draw a conclusion or steer the session in a particular direction, I want my clients to feel empowered to tell me when I get it wrong. I may be a professional, but I’m also human, and I want my clients to know and feel that in our sessions.
3. What are some signs that someone may benefit from seeking trauma-informed therapy?
The typical signs that someone may benefit from trauma-informed therapy tend to revolve around fixations on the past that the client has attempted to let go of but been unsuccessful. Digging in a little deeper, some glaring signs are often going into new relationships or situations with a closed mind, believing that these events will simply play out in the way they have during the past. Another indicator of unresolved trauma is the feeling of being powerless in the face of stress. Not only is it scary, but your body and mind recall how helpless you were in the past and default you back into acting or thinking in the way you did when you first experienced the trauma.
4. How do you incorporate your humanistic approach into your therapeutic sessions?
The humanistic approach focuses on attempting to understand and accept people as whole persons within the context of their environments. I use this in my sessions by always asking for clarification on the context behind what my clients are discussing with me. This gives me a chance to fully understand them, versus making inaccurate assumptions. Another belief in humanistic psychology is that human beings are born with a desire to grow and have the power to direct their own lives. I utilize this concept with my clients by working to help them understand how obstacles, such as trauma, have impeded their natural ability to grow and thrive. I believe that this is important in helping clients understand they are not broken, but simply blocked from living their life the way they would like to.
5. Can you explain the difference between Trauma-focused-CBT and traditional CBT?
Well, CBT (or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is a widely used approach that focuses on teaching clients how to understand the connection between their emotions, thoughts, and actions. Trauma-focused CBT builds on the foundations of CBT and adds in more specific activities that directly help to empower clients after trauma and teach them to self-regulate. TF-CBT involves specific psycho-education, practicing of grounding techniques to help with trauma triggers, and specific activities to build communication with parents and caregivers (for children and teens), such as creating a trauma narrative and sharing it openly with a parent or caregiver.
6. How do you help clients identify and utilize their strengths in therapy?
Whenever possible, if I hear a client using only negative self-talk to describe themselves, I want to challenge them to focus more on positive qualities they possess. For some clients this can be very difficult, but even if a client can identify one positive trait or ability they have, that’s progress. If a client can’t identify any ideas, I will often try to model sharing strengths I believe they may possess or encourage them to reflect on how their friends and family would describe them.
7. What is your philosophy on mindfulness, and how do you integrate it into your practice?
I believe that mindfulness is crucial to understanding ourselves. We all need time free from the distractions of the 21st century in order to reflect. I’ll be honest; most of my clients are hesitant to engage in mindfulness. So I enjoy finding guided meditations on YouTube, etc., to play in session for just a short amount of time in order to give my clients a chance to try it out.
8. Given your experience with LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities clients, how do you ensure an inclusive and affirming therapeutic environment?
In order to create an inclusive and affirming therapeutic environment, I’ve found I have to pay attention to my past biases and assumptions. I work to never assume that I understand my client’s identity or disability better than they understand it themselves. I try to ask as many questions as possible and remain open to their individual experiences. While there may be certain aspects I have learned in working with various types of clients, every client is unique in their own way, despite the possibility of sharing an identity or disability with others.
9. What are some common misconceptions about mental health that you'd like to address?
I feel one of the biggest misconceptions is that in order to seek out a therapist, your mental health issues have to be significantly impacting your life. Which is something I hope we see change someday. When it comes to our physical health, we wouldn’t wait until a part of our body became completely non-functional to seek out a doctor for help. In fact, it’s common practice to visit your doctor once a year and to do pre-emptive testing on physical illnesses that are common in particular groups of people. I hope someday I can see a world where everyone is encouraged to visit a therapist as a routine part of their overall health.
10. Outside of your professional work, how do you practice self-care and maintain your own well-being?
I’ll admit that maintaining my own personal self-care can be a struggle. But when it’s tough, I try to focus on small ways I can incorporate self-care into my daily schedule. For me, I try to add in some morning relaxation by grabbing some sunshine in my backyard with my dogs and just being in nature. Around lunchtime, I try to stretch (since this profession involves a lot of sitting) and make sure to get some movement into my day. And in the evening, if possible, I like to watch a new show or anime I’m interested in or pick up a new video game I’ve been putting off.
Transform life's challenges into strengths to unlock your full potential this 2025.
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