If You've Tried Therapy Before and Still Feel Stuck, This Might Be Why
You’ve done the work. You’ve shown up, sat across from a therapist, talked through the hard stuff. And you still feel like something hasn’t moved.
That’s not a you problem. It’s a method problem.
My name is Mandy Kushner. I’m a licensed therapist and one of the few ART-trained counselors in the Pittsburgh area. I work with adults carrying trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and depression, specifically people who’ve been in therapy before and haven’t found the relief they were looking for.
What I do differently often changes that.
“People start to HEAL the moment they feel HEARD.”
You Might Be a Good Fit If
You’re an adult who’s been living with the weight of something that happened, and no matter how much time passes, it hasn’t loosened its grip. Maybe it shows up in your sleep, your relationships, the way you react to things you can’t explain.
Or maybe anxiety has become so woven into your daily life that you’ve stopped noticing it’s there. It just feels like you.
I work with adults navigating:
- Anxiety and panic
- Bipolar disorder
- Complex grief and loss
- Depression and low mood
- Self-esteem and phobias
- Life transitions, attachment issues, and boundary challenges
- Trauma and PTSD: childhood, sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, accidents, natural disasters, veteran warfare
Most trauma therapy asks you to go back into the memory and stay there, to describe it, relive it, process it out loud over many sessions. For a lot of people, that’s why it stalls. Revisiting the hardest moments of your life, again and again, can feel like the opposite of healing.
I’m trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy, a research-backed approach that works differently.
ART uses guided eye movements and imagery to help your brain reprocess painful memories without you having to verbally relive them in detail. You stay in control throughout the entire session. You decide what to share and what to keep private.
Many of my clients notice a real shift within 2 to 5 sessions. That’s not a promise. Every person is different. But it’s a meaningful contrast to approaches that can take months to show any movement.
Alongside ART, I draw from:
- CBT, to identify and restructure the thought patterns keeping you stuck
- Polyvagal Theory, to understand your nervous system’s response to stress and build genuine safety
- Trauma-Informed Care, woven through every session, regardless of the presenting issue
What to Expect
see clients via telehealth only, which means you can work with me from anywhere in Pennsylvania, from wherever you feel most comfortable. Sessions are 50 minutes. I work mornings and afternoons and I’m currently accepting new clients.
Background & Training
People start to HEAL the moment they feel HEARD.
If what you’ve read here resonates, reach out. We don’t have to figure out everything in the first conversation. Fill out the appointment request form and tell me a little about what you’re looking for. I’ll take it from there.