Rebecca Hyman (she/her)

One of my areas of expertise and interest is posttraumatic stress. Trauma haunts us—it sticks around in our thoughts, our bodies, and our dreams. It steals our safety and trust. Sometimes it erupts in our relationships as violence or abuse, and we are caught off guard. It can feel overwhelming to face parts of ourselves that we fear. Yet in grappling with loss we claim our power. My goal is to assist each person I work with to either find or develop their True Self: the person they’ve always wanted to be; the person deep inside who hasn’t spoken in a very long time; the person able to give a very particular gift to the world. I honor difference in all of the ways that it expresses itself. I see each of us as both empowered and constrained by dynamics of gender, power, sexuality, privilege and oppression and I bring this understanding to the work I do. I draw from a number of theoretical approaches and am happy to speak with you individually about how we might work together.

Being a therapist is a second career for me. Before I was a therapist I was a tenured English and Women’s Studies professor. More recently I taught in the School of Social Work and Family Studies Program at Portland State University. I bring a focus on language, interpretation and meaning to my work as a therapist, and in addition to my specialties in mental health, I have a particular interest in helping people succeed in academic and creative pursuits. I received my MSW from Portland State University. As a social worker I’ve worked with people coming out of the criminal justice system, people struggling with substance use and dependence, people navigating domestic violence relationships, veterans coming home from war, and people who are living with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and personality disorders.