I’m Mariah Lord, LMFT

I’m so glad you found me here at Evoke.

When I set out to start my own practice, I wanted to be intentional about creating a space for people to show up in their wholeness. We are so often restrained in life by social niceties — surface level small talk, forced “professionalism,” pressures to minimize the reality of our pain. Even within the field of psychology, there are therapy modalities and funded research that seem to promote ideas of toxic positivity and problematic “bootstraps” mentality.

But in my eyes, therapy shouldn’t be yet another place where you feel you have to put on a mask or internalize shaming messages that somehow you just aren’t trying hard enough to feel better…

So I show up as a real person in my sessions with clients. I believe authenticity is the most important tool I can bring into the session. Especially since it is an unspoken expectation that the client is supposed to show up fully and vulnerably. How are my client’s supposed to do that if I am not being a real human being in return? And you won’t see me assigning therapy “homework.” Because I know all too well how even the concept of homework can be rooted in shame and relational trauma. And because I trust that the work that we do together has a way of establishing itself in organic ways into your life. When the work is connected to your values and uncovering your inner strengths, it simply feels better to engage with your life in these new and meaningful ways that we talk about in therapy. Not because someone else is telling you to do so.

With the right therapeutic fit between therapist and client, therapy can bring about the rawness and the realness in us. It is one of the few dedicated settings that we have for just being. Being in our unfiltered emotions. Verbalizing our unspoken fears, hopes, dreams, and desires. In my practice I strive to create an environment for you to do so, free of judgment.

Evoke (verb): to bring or recall to the conscious mind…

My hope for you at the end of each of our therapy sessions together is that our conversation stirred something up in you. Maybe it’s a memory, maybe it’s a new insight into an emotional experience, or part of yourself that hasn’t been given space before. I hope that our conversation elicits something in you. This is where meaningful change in life happens. In order to create movement towards our vision for our lives, we have to get to know ourselves in an honest way. We have to understand our patterns of behavior, our vulnerabilities, the stories we tell ourselves about our lived experiences, and the wisdom that our emotions and somatic experiences hold within them. Then we can evolve. Whatever our sessions evoke in you, whether it be a warm memory, an uncomfortable emotional experience, a deep appreciation for what brings you meaning in your life, or any other experience that we may shake up, I believe it is all needed and necessary for your healing experience. Reach out today and see what our sessions may evoke in you!