Meg Van Deusen

Photo by Lisa Bontje

Meg Van Deusen, Ph.D. began her undergraduate studies as a psychology major at Santa Clara University.  During her studies, she developed an equal interest in language and writing and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in German from Santa Clara University in 1985.  After some years as an English teacher and journalistic writer, Dr. Van Deusen returned to school to study psychology.  By the time she completed her doctorate of philosophy in Clinical Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles in 1992, Dr. Van Deusen had gleaned a wide range of clinical experience.  She had completed a practicum at California State University, Long Beach where she worked with college students in individual and group psychotherapy, an internship at Glen Roberts Child Study Center in Glendale, California where she taught parenting classes and worked with low income families in individual and family psychotherapy and an internship at Western State Hospital in Southern California where she worked with committed mentally ill patients in individual and group psychotherapy.  Dr. Van Deusen also conducted psychological testing in each of these settings and with these varied populations.

Shortly after graduating with her Ph.D., Dr. Van Deusen moved to Seattle.   By the time she became licensed in 1994, Dr. Van Deusen had a diverse clinical resume.  In addition to her pre-doctoral work, her supervised post-doctoral hours included inpatient work with children and adolescents at Fairfax Hospital in Kirkland, individual and family work at Family Services in Seattle and individual and group work at Advanced Clinical Services, a day treatment program in Federal Way.  In all of these settings, Dr. Van Deusen conducted individual, family and group psychotherapy as well as psychological testing.   Having worked with people of many races, ethnicities and sexual orientations in the various settings above, Dr. Van Deusen had cultivated a deep understanding of how psychotherapy and the practice of psychology can positively affect a wide range of people.   In late 1994 Dr. Van Deusen entered private practice full-time.

Since then, Dr. Van Deusen has cultivated an approach to treatment that encompasses years of hard work and dedication to continuing education (for further information on Dr. Van Deusen’s approach to treatment, see the Approach section on this site.)  She has consulted on external projects and has a blog on a topics she’s passionate about, stress, loneliness, sleep and anxiety. Her new book Stressed in the U.S. Twelve Tools to Tackle Anxiety, Loneliness, Tech-Addiction and More is due out December, 2019. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Washington State Psychological Association.

  Dr. Van Deusen understands that life is hard, that people are complex and that we are all interdependent.  She believes psychotherapy is an important part of caring for oneself and a critical agent of emotional and psychological change. Most of us struggle at some point in our lives.  We may have experienced a sudden or chronic trauma or may be grappling with long-standing anxiety, depression or relationship difficulties that have comprised well-being.  Other times, people seek therapy because they are interested in understanding themselves better and in enhancing their happiness level. Psychotherapy can be a flexible and broad place for growth and change.

     Although friends can be treasures, psychotherapy is different than talking to a friend.  Some of the key ingredients that make a psychotherapy experience successful are learning to identify and respond to one’s emotional wounds, cultivating self-compassion and being curious vs. critical about oneself and others.  To achieve these aims, Dr. Van Deusen will use psychodynamic and family systems theories to assess your current symptoms.  She will initially gather your emotional and psychological history from birth to adulthood and will continue, throughout the psychotherapy, to explore memories and experiences that have influenced you in ways you may or may not have realized.  She will aim to get a full picture of who you are considering your genetics, your temperament, your family of origin environment and your current circumstances.   She will interpret coping mechanisms that manifest in your relationship to yourself, others and the world, including the therapeutic relationship.  These coping or “defense mechanisms” can be automatic or even unconscious.  While adaptive in childhood, they are often problematic in adulthood.  Dr. Van Deusen may also analyze your dreams as dreams can be windows into the unconscious.  When Carl Jung was asked why we should raise the unconscious to consciousness, he replied “because life goes better.”  This is a simple yet succinct statement that explains the reason Dr. Van Deusen values depth psychotherapy as an important approach to working with you. 

     Dr. Van Deusen also uses her training in meditation and self-compassion to help clients calm the noise in their minds to which they may be vulnerable.  By combining psychodynamic theories of attachment, object relations, self psychology and Jungian theory with the cognitive-behavioral practice of mindfulness, Dr. Van Deusen helps clients identify and support their true selves. She identifies one’s assets and helps clients use these assets to change otherwise maladaptive behavior, be this substance abuse, obsessive-compulsiveness or blame, to name a few.  As a certified mindfulness teacher, she pulls from compassion and happiness research to augment her knowledge of mindfulness and may provide mindfulness tools for you to use both in and outside the psychotherapy session. Given the increasing stress in urban living these can be critical resources for a more grounded life.

     Whether Dr. Van Deusen is working with individuals or couples she sees that criticism of self and other is at the root of much suffering.  Learning to be curious about oneself and others without compromising appropriate boundaries runs throughout the therapy with Dr. Van Deusen.  Understanding the origin and nature of one’s behavior vs. simply wanting to extinguish it is key to changing it.  Dr. Van Deusen will use both interpretation and reframing to help you cultivate intrigue to promote change vs. beat yourself (or your partner) into it.  Particular attention to thought processes is essential to addressing this phenomenon.

     Dr. Van Deusen knows people can change, that life can go better than one sometimes thinks and that the therapeutic relationship is one of a kind in helping people understand this.