Smiling Spirit Pathways Homepage

Specializing in the needs of Women, Children and their families, Cherie Spehar, LCSW is your partner in healing. She will help you unlock unhelpful perceptions or heal from past trauma that holds you back from experiencing the true, amazing potential of your life.

Welcome
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There is a reason you arrived here, today, at this time. Perhaps things are just not feeling quite right with, or maybe things are very definitely wrong. It might be that life seems to have gotten the best of you. Whatever the reason, I'm so very glad you are here.

You have just taken the first step towards a destination of relief, empowerment, and a positive path to better emotional health and well-being for you and your family.

Specializing in the needs of Women, Children, and their families, I will partner with you in your healing, helping you to unlock distressing perceptions or heal from past trauma that holds you back from experiencing the true, amazing potential of your life.

Life can hurt, it can disappoint, it can upset the very balance of our existence. But it also has the potential to be full of the things we cherish, and I will help you find the joy in those again. While it is true that we can't change difficult situations of the past, we can work together to better understand them and their impacts, resolving the current challenges in your life, to illuminate the rest of your future.

Your journey awaits, and it would be an honor to help you find the light along the way.

Trauma Informed Care

No longer just a buzzword, we now know that Trauma-Informed Care is an approach that is a mindset, a practice, a philosophy, and evidenced-based science. Here at Smiling Spirit Pathways, I work with an integrative system of these pillars that encompasses mindfulness-based and expressive therapies, working in partnership with the body, brain, and spirit.

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Integrative Therapy
Personalized Healing Paths

Integrative Therapy involves utilizing diverse therapeutic modalities to help each unique person reach their fullest potential. As an Integrative Practitioner, I use this framework to guide my therapeutic approach, allowing us to create truly individualized and highly creative healing experiences and activities. We will draw from evidence-based practices in synergy with what YOU say might be helpful for you. Though I may sometimes invite you to reach outside of your comfort zone, the way we walk the therapeutic path will be custom fit for your unique and magnificent self. Often, we combine techniques to create something brand new!

Expressive Therapies

Expressive therapies are those that allow for freedom of movement, voice, action, visual and verbal storytelling, engagement in the natural world, and artistic creation. As they are trauma-informed, and mindfulness based, this means they are also science-supported!

Explore Expressive Therapies

As a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, I am highly enthusiastic about the softness and power of healing through play. Play is the child’s language and is their natural expression of mood, emotions, scary thoughts, traumatic stories, joys and celebrations.

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One of the therapeutic healing approaches I am most passionate about, Sandtray is a unique and sacred experience that I often describe as “3D art” in the sand.

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As a trained Journal Therapist and lifelong word lover, I’ve found Journal Therapy to be a potent and profound writing process. It is based on specific techniques and prompts designed to release trauma, receive clarity, and develop sensory regulation.

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Ecotherapy promotes mindfulness and engages the senses by working with the natural world with all its elements and wonders, providing pathways to swifter healing, grounding, and centering - critical skills for calming a nervous system.

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"I believe Cherie can recognize the genuine and non-genuine aspects of others because she is aware of her own genuineness and it's important impact. Every adult was once a child, and Cherie seems to respect and honor this fact in ways that allow for healing and progress that many "mental health professionals" never seem to consider as possible or beneficial."

~ KM ~

"Lots of therapists have years of experience and impressive degrees. What Cherie brings to her work goes beyond that—she is a warm, compassionate, generous listener who sees right to the heart of the matter and knows how to get you through it. You could not ask for a better guide."

~ ZM ~

"Cherie Spehar is the best kept secret in therapy. I don’t have the expertise or sophistication to find the words that would adequately convey the respect, gratitude, and awe to acknowledge her work. If you are lucky enough to get to work with her…I would say it’s a priceless opportunity."

~ Jb ~

"When I met Cherie a few years back there was an instant recognition of her magical energy. She has shown that to be true in countless ways since that first meeting. She is such an amazing light and inspiration to so many souls, including my own. Cherie selflessly offers that light to anyone who is walking their path in this world and guidance where needed along the way in friendship or on a professional level."

~ gr ~