Our Approach

Espenshade Counseling is a full service concierge outpatient behavioral health care management firm established in 2015 by Sarah McCabe Espenshade. Sarah’s family legacy and personal struggles inspired her to establish a behavioral health organization that caters to the unique needs of affluent individuals and families. Espenshade Counseling specializes in developing highly customized, “outside of the box” behavioral health care solutions for individuals and families who require the expertise of a highly skilled team of professionals that understand the unique nuances and challenges associated with the “culture of affluence”.

Sarah and her team are committed to providing comprenhensive behavioral health care utilizing a multi-disciplinary, integrative approach to help individuals and families recover from a wide range of mental health issues, substance use disorders or problematic behaviors that are affecting one’s quality of life.

Espenshade strives to deliver exceptional service and highly individualized clinical care. “We value collaboration and communication with our clients, colleagues and partners”. Espenshade offers a variety of clinical care options delivered by a team of compassionate professionals with expertise in a wide range of different evidence-based and experiential approaches. Services include: Individual, Family & Group Counseling; Case Management, Specialty Coaching , Clinical Consultation and Intervention Services. All services are designed to provide clients with a wide range of therapeutic options that will promote overall improvement in overall level of functioning. The primary goal is to promote healing and sustainable change in the real world in real time. We treat the whole person in accordance with your goals and objective. Our hope is provide the optimal balance between flexibility and structure to promote healing and sustainable change. Consistent with our commitment to providing exceptional clinical care we employ evidence-based practices and cutting-edge mental health technology to enhance the treatment experience.

The underlying clinical philosphy of the practice is based on Emotion Efficacy Therapy and the Family Systems Approach. The conceptual framework of EET is a synthesis of Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Exposure techniques. This protocol is designed to helps clients gain insight into their emotional experience by learning to differentiate between one’s emotional experience and a rational perspective. Clients learn skills to self-assess intensity of emotion in order to determine feasibility of tolerating distress versus utilizing a skill or technique to cope. This approach promotes emotion efficiacy- self-confidence that one can tolerate or cope with emotions and make rational decisons based on values. Emotion Efficacy is similar to learning a new language- a process that requires commitment, patience and practice. Espenshade teaches clients the language and provides opportunity for practice in their daily lives.

“We empower clients to safely experience vulnerability and dismantle maladaptive behaviors by teaching them to tolerate and cope with negative emotions. Problematic behaviors are a symptom of a more complex psychological issue that must be addressed to promote sustainable change. Emphasizing process versus content we encourage our clients to identify and explore pervasive themes and patterns of behavior correlated to their emotional experience. When more targeted interventions are deemed appropriate, we offer the following speciality therapies including Acceptance Commitment Therapy(ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy(DBT), Exposure and Response Prevention(ERP), Community Reinforcement Approach for Families Training(CRAFT), Eye Movement and Desentization Reprocessing(EMDR) and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE). We believe that assessment and treatment planning are an ongoing processes. Embracing the notion of psychological flexibility, we are prepared to pivot at any time it is clincially indicated. We regard lapses in problematic behavior as clinically significant opportunties to learn. Consistent with our belief that collaboration and transparency are critical in establishing a therapeutic relationship, we encourage feedback and constructive criticism. We strive to provide clients with a diversity of interventions and modalities of care to promote healing and reinforce confidence in one’s ability to tolerate and cope with emotional distress. In order for sustainable change to occur, we must provide a wide range of experiential opportunties to practice tolerating emotional distress , utilize coping skills and make mistakes in real time.

“Mistakes are valuable teachable moments that provide both deliberate and organic opportunites to promote healing and sustainable change.”

Sarah M. Espenshade, LCSW

Founder & CEO