Dr. Sallie Norquist, PhD, is a NJ licensed psychologist with well over 20 years of clinical experience.  She graduated from Michigan State University in 1984 with her doctorate in Clinical Psychology.  Dr Norquist is co-founder and director of Chaitanya Counseling and Stress Management Center. For nearly 15 years, she has been writing a weekly column entitled “Enlivening Ourselves” for The Hudson Reporter, which publishes 9 local weekly newspapers.

Dr Norquist views health as something achieved through active involvement on the part of each individual in acknowledging, accepting and taking responsibility for their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. Her experience is that there is an inner, organic growth process that, once accessed, can lead each individual in their own healing journey.  A nonjudgmental, accepting, mindful attitude is key to this process.  Her focus is on assisting clients in accessing and listening to the wisdom of this emerging inner growth process.  Body awareness is an essential aspect of this healing journey. The goal is a greater ability to navigate life’s difficulties (including fear, anxiety, depression and trauma), a deeper, more enlivened life, the capacity for richer, more meaningful relationships with self and others, and the ability to access and to trust the flow of one’s own life journey.

 Dr Norquist has extensive training in trauma resolution. She is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP).  Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented approach for treating trauma that was developed by Dr Peter Levine (see www.traumahealing.com)  It is a gentle process that allows for the discharge of unresolved trauma and helps to restore self regulation and a sense of aliveness and wholeness. This technique is also helpful for managing stress, anxiety, anger and panic. In addition, Dr Norquist has extensive Focusing Oriented Trauma Resolution (FOTR) training with Shirley Turcotte, a renowned Canadian trauma treatment authority.  Currently, Dr Norquist is in her second year of a two year training program in Focusing Oriented Therapy (FOT).  ‘Focusing’, developed by Eugene Gendlin, PhD, has been defined as “direct access to a bodily knowing”. Focusing-Oriented Therapy is an experiential, client-centered, bodily felt-sense focused approach to therapy. It is a method for entering that place where the therapeutic change process occurs, and as such, is an extremely powerful agent for effecting deep change (see www.focusing.org). It is excellent for stuck places, depression, anxiety, trauma, and when you feel estranged from yourself, others, or your body. Focusing brings about a physical change in the way the issue lives in your body. Often unique inner shifts occur, along with the emergence of new solutions. Dr Norquist utilizes an eclectic treatment approach (body-oriented, cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, attachment-focused, or spiritually-focused) based on the needs and desires of each individual client.

She works with adults of all ages including young adults, college students, first-time mothers, couples, and senior citizens.

Typical symptoms and issues that Dr. Norquist treats include:

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She answers questions about life and relationships from a holistic, spiritual orientation. Her intention is to assist  people in empowering themselves, and provide meaningful concepts and recommendations that have practical applications.

Or to schedule an appointment
or discuss your situation, please call me at (201) 659-3060, ext. 15.

(all client communications are strictly confidential)