About Meagan L. Giordano, LCSW
What does it mean to live Life with Ease? For me, it is the last line of the loving-kindness meditation I practice daily, and it reminds me that it is possible to be okay with the inevitable ups and downs of life. When you are suffering, that may seem impossible, but suffering is not necessary.
Clients who work with me experience the diffusion of difficult emotions, thoughts, and sensations from the past, and a new capacity to tolerate distress moving forward. You will discover how openness to your own discomfort actually increases your ability to be kind to yourself and others, which results in less negative self-talk, and better engagement with the people you care about.
My Experience
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and my life’s work over the past 20 years has been working in healthcare settings. I specialized working with individuals experiencing chronic and life threatening illness, as well as life transitions in community mental health.
Over the last several years, I have been drawn to private practice because I have found that I am most effective helping people explore and process their various trauma and to help them come to a place of healing while learning to live their own Life with Ease.
I am also licenced in both North Carolina and Colorado, as well as certified in EMDR through EMDRIA.
My Philosophy of Care
I work with adults of all ages, gender, and diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The commonality is that we as humans all struggle with emotions, memories, distressing thoughts, and anxiety about the future. The difference is our individual and collective experiences, and how they contribute to our resilience as individuals or as a group. I specialize in working with high functioning individuals with complex trauma, anxiety, life transitions, relationships, and loss.
I believe that everyone deserves accessible, affordable, and most importantly, quality mental health care. The therapist and client relationship is sacred, but temporary, therefore it is not to be wasted or treated carelessly. This is why I do my best to meet client’s where they are at in terms of therapeutic goals, as well as financially.
Service Area and Cost
I am proud to provide virtual counseling services to individuals anywhere in North Carolina (where I reside) and Colorado (my home state). I am physically located in downtown Waynesville, NC, and see clients from all over the Western North Carolina region, including Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Buncombe, and Henderson Counties.
Sessions are 50 minutes and cost $120. I accept credit card payments through Ivy Pay, Venmo, and Zelle.
I am currently in-network with the following insurances:
· Aetna
· BCBS of North Carolina
· BCBS Medicare Advantage
· Carelon Behavioral Health
· Cigna
· Humana Medicare Advantage
I have applied to become in-network with Original Medicare, NC Medicaid, and the VA, and will happily let you know when these become available to clients in my practice.
My Approach
I believe in the connection of the whole body and mind, which means that I will focus on your overall well-being from a physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual perspective.
By taking the steps to promote greater health in your body, mind, and spirit, you can shift from the struggles that hold you back, and accept yourself in a way that allows you to move forward with lightness and Ease.
I use a wide range of techniques to help individuals understand the past, get grounded in the present, and prepare for a future with Ease. Here are a few of my favorite therapeutic modalities:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
When you feel like you are being hijacked by your emotions and become paralyzed by decision making, ACT is a type of psychotherapy that helps you learn to accept difficult thoughts, feelings, sensations, and internal experiences while guiding you to commit to values-based actions.
Internal Family Systems
Does it ever feel like you have one part of you that feels a certain way, and then another part that thinks and feels the exact opposite? The theory of IFS is that we all have several parts living within us that fulfill both healthy and unhealthy roles. Life events or trauma, however, can force us out of those healthy roles into extreme roles. The goal of IFS therapy is to find your Self and bring all of these parts together.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Sometimes it can feel like memories or emotions get stuck and we can’t escape. EMDR is a psychotherapy that uses bilateral stimulation to enable you to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.