Practitioner Directory

Patricia Boswell, M.A., LPC

Women's Therapy groups : Women's Wisdom Weekends : Workshops

Welcome to my psychotherapy practice. I would like to provide you with information about my background, interests, and how I carry out my practice.

I have worked therapeutically with individuals and groups for twenty- three years. My professional background is in chemical dependency, and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, as well as, a Nationally Certified Counselor. I have found that my experience in the recovery process applies to many issues people face, and I value the practical aspects of change. Licensure and national certification means that I have met substantive post-graduate and continuing education criteria, including a national examination.

I graduated from West Virginia University Masters Program in Counseling and Guidance in 1984. I trained at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland from 1993-1996. Gestalt Therapy is an expressive, action-based approach to growth, which supports an individual's ability to notice self in the moment and understand one's meaning-making process. This is a collaborative process between therapist and client. I consider the experience of the therapeutic relationship to be a valuable part of the therapy process. I also consider attention to one's body to be an integral part of our work. For example, I pay attention to areas of tension, styles of breathing, and habitual postures. I believe that attentiveness to physical process permits a full experience of self and integrated growth. I studied with Dr. Christine Page to complete her certificate program on Navigating Your Souls Journey from 2004-2005. I value the presence of my own, as well as, my client’s intuitive presence in the therapeutic relationship. Opening and trusting intuition is a valuable aspect and goal of my work.

My practice consists of individuals that desire a life in which they feel more authentic in themselves. This may mean they wish to examine family of origin issues, current episodes or anxiety or depression, addiction concerns, or relational difficulties. I believe the work of claiming one’s Self is our Souls wish and desire. Granting this is difficult when many of our familial/cultural messages and life experiences greatly distract us from this task. My path is to assist and support others to let go of that which keeps them from their true selves.

I also facilitate a variety of women's psychoeducational, psychospiritual and process-oriented groups which use art and ritual to express personal truths. I also facilitate presentations to organizations for training and personal growth. Currently, I conduct several day-long workshops and facilitate a bi-monthly women's group. I have brochures and would be glad to talk with you further if you are interested.
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My normal practice is to allow the first 3-5 sessions to be an evaluation period in which we get to know each other, discuss the issues you are interested in addressing, and develop a plan for treatment, including frequency of appointments. At this point we will both have a better sense of where to go and if we are suitably matched for the journey. If we are not I will be glad to help you find another professional with whom you can consult.

My fee for 50 minute sessions is $100.00. Payment is expected at the time of our sessions.

Your payment to me may be reimbursable by your insurance carrier if you have out-of-network coverage. If so, you will manage your own reimbursement process with your insurer. I will provide you with monthly statements for you to submit.

My telephone is answered by a confidential voice mail system. I usually return calls within 24 hours; on weekends this is not always possible. If I am going to away for an extended period, I will leave the name and number of a colleague you may call. If you should ever experience an emergency and cannot reach me, please contact your family physician or local emergency room.

The style of therapy I provide requires a significant commitment from both of us, so if you need to cancel an appointment I require 24 hours notice. Unlike other services, a key feature of psychotherapy is the commitment we both make to dedicate time to your growth and development. My cancellation policy is part of how I honor this commitment.

If you have any questions or concerns about the nature if my work or what happens in our process together, please talk with me about them. You always have the right to ask questions or decline any specific piece of work I may propose. I welcome discussion about our process, and consider this an important aspect of our work and your trust.

I have two offices. My Uniontown office is located in Chalk Hill. My Pittsburgh office is in the Nuin Center located on the corner of Bryant and Mellon Streets in the East End of Pittsburgh. I will be glad to provide directions to either location.

I wish you blessings on your journey. I am honored to assist.

Patricia

WOMEN'S THERAPY GROUPS

Imagine meeting with a group of women on a regular basis…
A group of women who support you and know you...
A place to learn more about yourself as a woman….

Such a place exists

Group therapy is a powerful experience. Participants often feel it is life changing. This invitation is to join an on-going women’s group that notices and attends to each woman’s style of bringing her self to the world, and to the group. We pay attention to how these individual styles empower or diminish each woman. You are invited to:

• Re-claim your Authentic Self- Speaking what is true is often a challenge for women. We tend to offer what is “nice “ and “comforting” versus what lives in our souls. In this group we will invite each women’s voice and experience to come out of hiding.
  
  
• Deepen Relations- Women need each other. We need to see ourselves in other women’s eyes and lives. We need to feel “not alone” so that we may be supported on our journeys. This experience offers the time and space to open to other women’s hearts. This opening creates a necessary sisterhood that empowers participants to move authentically in the world.
  
  
• Integrate Your Wholeness- In the culture we live today we split the mind/ emotion/ body/ spirit connection. The mind is valued as the “I” while the body is demoted to the “it”. In this group our intention is to heighten awareness, experiment with and discover the wisdom housed within each women’s body.

As group facilitators our focus and intention is for each women to experience her self as safe to push her emotional and relational edges. We will integrate a variety of methodologies to create an innovative and unique group experience. There are no structured topics. Emphasis is placed on the issues that hold interest and vitality for the group. Each story shared is held with honor and experienced as a gift to the group.

Women's Wisdom Weekends

Women's Wisdom Weekend

Women’s Wisdom Weekends are designed to offer women and opportunity to experience, embrace an express their inner wisdom, authentic self and feminine freedom by practicing

• Trusting through Intuition
• Listening through Embodiment
• Learning through Nature
• Anchoring through Ritual
• Sharing through Community

We hold that each woman must first experience her inner wisdom through the sensations and signals from her bodily self. Our bodies, with all their blessings and blemishes, are a vast, often untapped, container of wisdom.

A woman moving into her authentic self must embrace her inner wisdom. Women often distrust their wisdom looking elsewhere for empowerment and permission. Each time we embrace our inner wisdom we become more present to our authentic selves and our hearts sing.

Expression of inner wisdom and authentic self spirals a woman’s journey toward feminine freedom. Freedom to fully express your unique self, with all your beauty and flaws, and without shame, connects each woman to the wisdom of her soul so she may effect change in her self, her community, her world.

About Jodi and Patricia:

Jodi and Patricia have active and successful clinical practices as psychotherapists in PIttsburgh and Uniontown, PA. Jodi and Patricia have over 45 years of combined experience working with individuals who are seeking to enrich and enliven their lives. For the past 3 years they have been offering therapy groups for women in the Pittsburgh area. Jodi and Patricia believe that a woman's journey is sacred and vitally important. It is with this dedication they designed Women's Wisdom Weekends.

Jodi Peppel
Jodi is a Certified Rubenfeld Synergist. She has trained extensively with Ilana Rubenfeld and has been on the teaching staff of the four-year Rubenfeld Synergy Training Program. She is also certified to train/mentor other Certified Rubenfeld Synergists. She is a member of several Professional Associations and has been active on an organizational level. She also co-facilitates ongoing advanced training groups for Certified Rubenfeld Synergists.

Patricia Boswell, M.A., LPC, NCC
Patricia is a Nationally Certified Therapist, a Licensed Professional Counselor and is Gestalt trained and certified. She has developed and facilitated women's groups, lectures and workshops for Penn State Women's Day, Lilydale Assembly in Lilydale, NY and Earth Prayers Ceremonial Art Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio. She has taught in the Graduate Art Therapy Department at Seton HIll College in Greensburg, PA and offered the keynote address at the West Virginia Drug and Alcohol Conference

Workshops

Gems for the Journey:
Create jewelry that inspires your path

A women’s love is a powerful force. When focused into intention, her love can be felt as a soft container of safety or as wings on which to fly. A women’s love, when gathered with her sisters, opens her to the wisdom of women’s hearts. When soul sisters are gathered, magic happens and the world changes.

Today, women need to gather. The world needs the compassion of our combined hearts, we need the support of our united love. Sister Bead gatherings are intended to support women through life transitions by inviting her sisters around her in a purposeful circle. Gatherings also offer the weaving of feminine community for the birth of a child, a significant birthday, graduation, or marriage, the transition of divorce, illness or death, distinguishing and uniting a valued group or simply a women’s need to feel a connection to her soul sisters.

Each woman brings enough beads to gift every other woman with one bead. Ceremoniously the women gathered string the beads into their own unique piece of Sister jewelry. The circle holds and unites the hearts, souls, and intention of the women gathered. The prayers held within each piece is invoked each time a woman wears her Sister Beads… Re-membering with her sisters.

Woman’s Way of Knowing
The Making of Your Intuitive Doll

This workshop follows the Russian folktale of Vasalisa, in which a young girl is blessed by her dying mother, threatened by her stepmother, and sent out into the forest to find her intuitive wisdom. This story teaches the lessons of the life, death, rebirth cycle necessary for every woman’s transformation.

Through use of experiential exercises, we engage in the tasks necessary to find, strengthen and trust one’s intuitive voice. This voice has been there from the very beginning. We recognize it and nurture it during this day of story, ritual, and creative expression, which culminates in the creation of an intuitive doll. The making of the doll deepens each woman’s intuitive listening. No prior sewing experience is necessary.

At the end of the day, each woman will have remembered her inner voice in concrete and creative ways she can trust to guide her, like Vasalisa, through the forest.