Today we’d like to introduce you to Peretz Shlosberg.
Peretz, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have always been a curious person who has been interested in the human condition. Why do we do the things we do? What motivates us? What brings us down? Who are we? How do we respond to life around us? What is our potential as individuals? These questions have always been the backbone to my desire to help others. Being in the mental health field for over 10 years and running my own practice in my 5th year running, those central questions help me hone in on my niche in the field. What started as a sole focus on deep trauma work with clients including utilizing parts work and inner child work with individuals and Relationship Repair Process (RRP) with group work, is now stemming more closely to a focus on life transitions (career changes, grieving, life epiphanies, etc.) and a deeper focus on spirituality. I work best with clients that are willing to do the hard work, to ask the hard questions and be willing to challenge their own self beliefs and their beliefs around the world around them. One context this work can take place is within psychedelic healing, and the momentum toward offering these opportunities in Missouri with Ketamine assisted Psychotherapy is an exciting recent development that has informed the direction of my practice. Psychedelic integration is an area that I am already exploring with clients as the law continues to allow for more direct experience to occur in office as well. But ultimately, the work I do with clients today is life integration, learning how to bring our authentic selves into the world around us.
Another aspect of myself is my creative world. I love photography, writing, and creating my own form of digitally inspired artwork, as shown in the pictures below. I find this side of me is essential to who I am and I try to bring this energy into my professional work as well.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Is there a smooth road out there? If there is, I haven’t found it yet! Struggles define the way. Our response to the struggle is what defines the situation at hand. If we fold, we lose the essence that exists within the struggle that is the very thing that helps us define the success. We can also decide to look at the struggle as an opportunity to learn from the experience and better ourselves for the next shot. The struggles for me were finding my niche. Coming out of school, I wasn’t sure of anything other than knowing that I wanted to open my own private practice and help people. But what type of people? What type of practice? Where were my strengths best expressed? My journey started as a case worker, assisting people with their medications, taking them to doctor appointments, helping them clean their home. Being right out of school, this was an important experience for me and it helped me realize that this wasn’t where my strengths lie when I considered how I can best help others. My next step in my journey brought me to working with children in a therapeutic context. I worked as a project manager and maintained a program where I would stay in touch with my clientele from K-3rd grade, building relationships with the family and creating a cohesive therapeutic environment for the family over the span of these formative years. I loved running a program on my own but I didn’t love working with kids– it wasn’t where my strengths were found, but I picked up valuable information about myself that I really enjoyed running my own program on my own. This is when I transitioned to private practice and from my own personal experiences growing up I felt drawn to working with trauma modalities including parts work and inner child work. I had the privilege to run week long retreats as a trauma therapist at a program in Detroit called Fresh Start. The work was very intense but gratifying and I felt honored to do this deep work with clients and I fully immersed myself in this trauma informed therapy in my private practice in St. Louis as well. That has been my journey until recently where I am discovering more about myself and the way in which I can best serve my client with the strengths that I possess. And this is where my most recent pivot has occurred where I am transitioning to life transition and spirituality as my niche while still offering trauma informed work. All of these stages represent struggle and I would lose motivation at times within these frameworks when I wasn’t sure what my next step was going to be. However, with perseverance and a dedication to discovering my true passion within my profession and expertise I can take that struggle and translate it to the stepping stone for my continued development as a professional and as a person.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Guided Expression?
I feel like I included a lot of this in my previous responses, but to summarize– my business is always evolving and I am passionate to serve others discover deeper parts of themselves that can aid in developing their sense of self and their sense of purpose in this world. I am not afraid of change and that is one thing that sets me apart from others in my field. I am willing to explore the cutting edge modalities and I am also willing not to fool myself into thinking that any one modality is a cure all. The path for all of us is a gradual one and is totally unique to each of us, which means that different things work for different people. I am proud of my ability to accept this as a truth and to utilize that in the way that I approach my clientele. Ultimately, I am an investigator of Self and as long as the client is open to this, I am confident I can help them reach a deeper understanding of themselves that can greatly benefit their lives in meaningful ways.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Interesting question! What first comes to mind is going to Universal studios with my dad. We loved Ren and Stimpy and I remember posing with my dad in front a cut out of them. I also got slimed which was awesome. I think my whole family was with us but I remember this time with my dad because he worked nights while I was growing up so his schedule made it hard to hang out with me usually.
Pricing:
- What do you mean? Like what I charge per session? If so I charge $180 for a 50 minute session and clients are typically seen either once a week or once every two weeks. Some clients work with me briefly and some work long term, really depends on what the client’s needs are, and sometimes that changes as the work develops.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://guidedexpression.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guidedexpression/
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/peretz-shlosberg-olivette-mo/912069
