Hannah Sedlacek

A strong and soft heart. 

This is what I want for you. A heart with the strength to advocate for yourself and others, stand up for what you believe in, support yourself and your loved ones, find steadfastness in your spiritual journey, be courageously vulnerable, and grow in confidence and resilience to persevere. And a heart that, despite the pain and bitterness, stays soft through feeling every big feeling, loving with compassion and kindness, and having grace for yourself and others. You can have a strong and a soft heart. You can set boundaries and love passionately in your relationships. You can parent with structure and nurture. You can build coping skills for your anxiety and fully validate your overwhelming feelings.

Several years ago in a season of pain, a quote hooked me and kept me coming back…

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.” – Iain Thomas

If you asked my closest friends or colleagues what I always say I’m striving for, they would tell you “a strong and soft heart.” I became a therapist so that I could be in the “closed door conversations,” sitting with people as they navigate vulnerability and pain, because I believe there can be healing and restoration in every little crevice of our world.  I would be privileged to walk through a piece of that story with you.

So often the world makes us hard and the pain makes us hate and the bitterness steals our sweetness. We wrestle through anxiety and depression, feelings of confusion, challenges in relationships that seem difficult to overcome, and overwhelming feelings we don’t know what to do with. This is often what we’re navigating and working towards together in therapy. Humans are resilient – we’re overcomers. We can have strong and soft hearts.

“When you connect to the heart of a child, everything is possible.” – Dr. Karyn Purvis

Connection is the heartbeat of a thriving child. This is my therapeutic approach with children and adolescents in a nutshell. Connection with a child – with their parents, peers, teachers, and therapist – opens up gateways into their inner world. Seeing this inner world can help us work through depression and/or anxiety, questions about sexuality, difficulties with emotional regulation, sensory challenges, ADHD, obsessive or compulsive behaviors, and trauma.

In my work with children and families, I utilize my training in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Theraplay (Level I), and Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC). These frameworks place attachment at the forefront of the therapeutic process and then work towards emotional regulation and trauma processing, involving parents every step along the way. My experience is working with children ages 4-18 with a history of abuse and/or neglect as well as working in a partial hospitalization setting with adolescents wrestling with severe depression and anxiety. This gives me a wide perspective of how to work with kids of all ages facing a variety of mental health challenges. It’s also given me a lot of insight into Minecraft, maximalist Gen Z fashion, and allllll of the lingo *iykyk*. Teens – I got you.

In addition to working directly with kids, I am a firm believer that parents have the ability to be the most therapeutic presence in their child’s life. I am passionate about working with parents as they navigate their child’s mental health challenges and support them as they learn how to best care for their child through learning about their own parenting and attachment styles.