About Me

I first came to counseling at twenty, when I realized that the way I approached things in my life was not working for me. I left college in my junior year and came back to Seattle, where I found a therapist and embarked on a long journey towards changing how I saw myself and others in the world.

I think that in our society, we learn to be impatient and to expect quick results. I certainly looked for fast results in my own healing process. Nothing irritated me more than being told—by friends or by my therapist—that I needed to take “baby steps”. I didn’t want baby steps, I wanted total transformation.

To this end, I engaged in many modalities of creating change, including individual therapy; group therapy; insight meditation; weekend workshops promising “powerful tools for transformation”; body and energy work; and walking the five-hundred mile pilgrimage trail in Spain called the Camino de Santiago—twice. All of these experiences taught me that while I don’t get to control my life, I can vastly improve the quality of my life by being curious and compassionate about the things that distress me, rather than denying them or condemning myself for not being perfect.

Here is a brief summary of my professional qualifications:

• Graduated from Antioch University Seattle in 2007 with a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology
• Completed one-year internship at Seattle Counseling Services in 2007, counseling LGBT clients
• Worked as a case manager from 2008—2013 at the Aloha Inn, a resident-managed transitional housing program for homeless adults in Seattle
  
• Opened private practice in 2009, entering private practice full-time in 2013
• Trained with Dr. Stan Tatkin for 3 years, earning a Level II Certificate in the Psychobiological Approach to Couple’s Therapy (PACT)
• Active member of the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study. Volunteer work has including leading courses; serving on the education committee; leading mentoring groups; and working as a therapist with the Alliance Community Psychotherapy Clinic
  
• Participated in the Women's Therapy Referral Service, a unique Seattle-based service which ended in 2020, from 2015 to 2019
  

© 2019 - Elana Kupor, LMHC. All Rights Reserved.   |   Site by Numinosity Design