Sonja Lindgren

I am a 1994 graduate of the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, where I received a Master’s Degree in Social Service, and a 1985 graduate of Brown University, where I studied Comparative Literature. I am licensed in the state of Pennsylvania in Clinical Social Work. In addition to treating patients in my private practice in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which I opened in 2006, I have been a lecturer at The School of Social Policy and Practice at The University of Pennsylvania.

An experienced psychotherapist, I have worked for The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment, Introspect of Buxmont, Mentor (a therapeutic foster care program), and most recently Main Line Clinical Associates. I had a previous career in publishing and also taught English language and literature to high school students in Zimbabwe, where I lived for eighteen months in 1989-1990.

I enjoy working with clients throughout their lifespan and have treated children as young as four and adults as mature as ninety-two. I have inpatient, outpatient, and school experience with elementary-age school children, and inpatient and outpatient experience with adolescents and am familiar with the adolescent issues of peer struggle, self-esteem, body image, stress, and self-injury. In work with young people, I employ the modalities of talk therapy, family therapy, play therapy, EMDR therapy, and aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy, depending on what approach is the best fit for the client and for the issues for which they have sought treatment.

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I hold a certification in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy, a well-researched treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and complex trauma that can be effective for treating the effects of any negative life experience, particularly those that continue to resonate in the present. EMDR Therapy is an exciting modality that can provide relief from stubborn symptoms that do not resolve with talk therapy, as it addresses mind, body, and emotion simultaneously, and has been shown to work more quickly than traditional psychotherapy. For more information, please visit EMDRIA.com the website of the EMDR International Association.

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I have worked with many couples and families to reduce conflict and deepen relationships. I believe that relationships provide a path for growth and that one of my jobs as a psychotherapist is to help people develop healthy, generative relationships with themselves, their families, and their community. In my view, psychotherapy is a collaborative, creative process. It can be brief or extensive, depending on the client’s goals and the complexity of the issues. It is always a conversation.