Our Team

Karen L. Smith

MSS, LCSW

Our Founder and Director has maintained a full-time private practice for nearly 30 years. Early in her work, she identified the value of collaborating with other clinicians to discuss theories and approaches to work with clients, and the value of having more than one clinician engaging with the same client or client system.

While many outpatient therapists find themselves working in isolation, Ms. Smith has spent the past three decades participating in and running biweekly study and supervisions groups. These groups have created a team of clinicians who cross-refer clients when appropriate and have given them opportunities to discuss cases as a team.

Because of her years as a national educator on issues related to Eating Disorders, and more recently, educating other therapists on enriching their work with analytic theory, Ms. Smith found herself routinely getting more referrals than her practice could handle. Rather than simply referring them out to other clinicians, she decided to create a small group practice so she could offer a source for reliable psychotherapy services.

Each and every clinician in the Full Living practice has been interviewed and handpicked by the Director. Karen wishes to ensure nothing less than the best to offer those seeking top-quality psychotherapy services and clinicians that truly care about their clients.

Ms. Smith meets with every potential client personally, in a free initial consultation, to get a sense of which of her therapists is the best match, based on their stated needs, personality and style.

Full Living: A Psychotherapy Practice has offices throughout Philadelphia and The Greater Philadelphia Area including multiple offices in Center City 19109, Chestnut Hill 19118, Northern Liberties 19123, Old City 19106, Rittenhouse Square 19146, Roxborough 19106, South Philly 19107, University City 19104, West Philly 19143, and surrounding neighborhoods including Glenside 19038, Haverford 19041, and Narberth 19072.

Carolina Alshon

LCSW

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” Joshua J. Marine. My role has a psychotherapist is to create an environment that is safe and non-judgmental in where you feel nurtured and supported to explore and overcome life challenges. My name is Carolina Alshon, a native of Chile, and a Bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I entered the profession with the solid intention to help those who come to me by creating connection, understanding, and a sense of belonging. I use a relational approach favoring attunement and respectful understanding for my clients. I am a curious clinician, who is animated and values a strong therapeutic relation. I believe that therapists can offer a space for clients to explore their experiences openly and without fear of judgment. I use active listening, empathetic support, humor, unconditional positive regard, and strengths-based approach. I tailor treatment by using a variety of tools, such as relaxation exercises, cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, psycho-dynamic approach and psychoeducation. My goal is that in working together your “alhue” (the Mapuche word for spirit) finds harmony with your mind and body.

“Los desafíos hacen la vida interesante y superarlos es lo que le da sentido a la vida”. Joshua L. Marine. Mi rol como psicoterapeuta es crear un ambiente seguro y libre de juzgamiento en donde te puedas sentir protegido y apoyado para explorar y superar los desafíos de la vida. Mi nombre es Carolina Alshon, nací en Chile y soy una trabajadora social clínica licenciada y además bilingüe. Elegí esta profesión con el convencimiento de poder ayudar a otros manteniendo una mente abierta, dando apoyo y mostrando empatía. Yo uso un enfoque relacional con énfasis en conexión y respeto por mis clientes. Soy una psicoterapeuta inquisitiva e interesada que valora la solidez del trabajo en terapia. Yo creo que los terapeutas pueden ofrecer un espacio donde las personas puedan explorar sus experiencias abiertamente y sin temor a ser juzgados. Me gusta escuchar con atención, entregar apoyo con empatía, usar humor, mantener consideración emocional, y cultivar la fortaleza interna. Mi tratamiento es diversificado y utiliza diferentes técnicas, como ejercicios de relajación, terapia cognitiva y de comportamiento, terapia de aceptación y compromiso, enfoque psicodinámico y educación. Mi meta es que trabajando juntos, tu “alhue” (espíritu en el idioma Mapuche) se encuentre en armonía con tu cuerpo y tu mente.

Services Currently Offered: Individual Therapy for Teens and Adults.

Marquita Bolden

MSW, LCSW

At its best, therapy is a space where your worries can heard without judgement. Therapy is a space where you can gain a deeper understanding how your worries started, what keeps your worries going, and techniques to calm your worries. Therapy, at its best, is a safe space where you can heal yourself with the support of a compassionate therapist. As a therapist, Marquita’s role is to join with you in your cloud of worry or sadness, and accompany you on your path to wellness.

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker providing mental health therapy, Marquita specializes in helping people manage issues related to anxiety, grief, life transitions, depression, and traumatic experiences. Throughout Marquita’s career, she has worked with people from many walks of life, from those who survived life-threatening events to those working through everyday troubles. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with over 10 years’ experience as a therapist, Marquita has trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT), Trauma-Focused, and other therapy styles. Marquita has also worked significantly with people of color and the LGBTQ community.

Outside of Full Living, Marquita works as a Clinical Supervisor at the Therapy Center of Philadelphia, a feminist organization that serves women, transgender, and non-binary people. Marquita is also is the Philadelphia Chair for the Coffee and Conversations Program of the Pennsylvania Society of Clinical Social Work.

Ms. Smith talks with every potential client personally, spending time getting to know them and seeking to connect them to the clinician that will best match their needs. She has the heart to see that each one is placed with that perfect fit so they will reap the full benefits of their therapy experience.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adolescents, Adults, Individuals and Families.

Valerie Daniel

LCSW

Valerie works to empower her clients to better navigate through the crossroads and transitions of life, in order to live their best lives. Her goal is to create a safe space for clients to hear themselves think and develop tools to manage transitions. Valerie has successfully navigated many of her own life changes and sees them as opportunities for growth. Research shows us that big life transitions trigger physical and emotional stress responses, and having coping skills helps provide the emotional stamina needed to thrive.

Valerie is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Ph.D from Widener University. She an adjunct professor at Delaware County Community College. Valerie’s post graduate studies focused on African American women, and she continues to provide education on the Black Lives Matter movement. She has been working in the field for 20 years, using clinically tested and evidence based interventions in her work with clients.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adults, Individuals and Couples.

Vanessa Evearts

MSS, LCSW

Living with depression, anxiety, or knowing something isn’t right but not knowing what to call it can be overwhelming and feel defeating. As a therapist and a human being I have seen the immense strength it takes to make the first step to ask for help and support. Your recovery and healing journey begins with you, who you are as a person and your experiences. I believe that you have immeasurable tools and strengths inside waiting to be discovered. I have been a therapist for the last 10 years providing therapy to adults living with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, self-esteem issues and psychotic disorders.

My approach to the therapeutic relationship is person-centered, respectful, tailored to you and strengths-based. Open communication and collaboration are vital pieces of the therapy process. The evidenced based approaches that I utilize elements of are traditional talk therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, DBT, trauma-focused and EMDR.

I come from a background of running multiple integrated clinical programs, and I understand the needs of people from a whole person approach. Your mental health struggles do not define you, however they are a part of your journey and I look forward to the opportunity to walk through this recovery process with you.

Services Currently Offered: Individual Therapy with Adults

Andrea Miner-Isaacson

PhD

Andrea is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Dance/Movement Therapist. In her practice, located in Narberth, Andrea helps her clients solve the problems of living to create satisfying futures. She has expertise in many types of difficulties including depression, anxiety and trauma. Her specialties include Eating Disorders, relationship issues and addictions. Andrea uses a variety of specialized techniques including EMDR, mindfulness, Energy Psychology, Creative ARts and Aromatherapy. When it’s time to play, Andrea enjoys a variety of activities. An avid figure skater, she is a judge for US Figure Skating.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adults, Individuals and Couples.

Robert A. Isaacson

MSS, LSW

Robert A. Isaacson

MSS, LSW

Bob’s been in practice since 1986 as a clinical social worker, with loads of experience with a variety of people.

Often he’s a sounding board, inviting clients to a more optimistic and hopeful view of possibilities for themselves, their work, and their relationships. Bob’s practical and concrete in what he says and recommends. Hard-nosed research drives his work.

Bob’s warm, friendly, and welcoming. Clients say he listens well, and at a deep level. He’s a straight shooter, speaks honestly and directly and uses humor in his sessions.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adolescents, Adults, Individuals, Couples and Families. Offers Life and Business Coaching.

Shobhana Kanal

MSS, LCSW

Psychotherapy is a unique partnership that can help you step back, experience yourself and the world in new ways, and make empowered choices about how to live your life. Good therapy can help you learn or strengthen skills for coping with life’s challenges, identify the purpose for your life, and harness your own talents. If you engage wholeheartedly in the therapeutic conversation, you will begin to develop a better understanding of yourself and others and increase your capacity for joy.

Clients describe Shobhana as warm, encouraging, and nonjudgmental. She listens closely and actively, but doesn’t fit the stereotype of the near-silent therapist. As one client put it, “This feels more like a conversation.”

With 20 years of experience helping people with a wide range of mental health concerns and life challenges, Shobhana can provide brief counseling or life coaching that targets a specific problem, as well as long-term therapy that helps people work though deep-seated conflicts and relationship patterns. She additionally provides specialized coaching for busy people who are overwhelmed by clutter and disorganization. Shobhana teaches ways to create space and use simple organizational practices in your home or office, so you can focus on and enjoy the things that really matter in your life.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Individuals and Couples. Offers Life Coaching. Shobhana is half South Asian and has a particular interest in the experience of first-generation Americans and multicultural families.

Maria Munoz-Grandes

MS, MEd, MA

Maria Munoz-Grandes has been a practicing psychotherapist for 24 years. A citizen of both Spain and the United States, she is currently offering bilingual psychotherapy in her center-city Philadelphia office for adults struggling with a range of issues including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress; low self-esteem, conflicts with identity, or issues related to culture, race, gender, sexual orientation; problems in relationships, low levels of life-satisfaction; existential crises related to life transitions, relocations, separations, losses or other life disruptions; and how to better understand themselves, own their narratives, or simply increase their overall resiliency.

Maria has developed what she calls an “intermodal” approach to psychotherapy: Drawing on all the wisdom and knowledge achieved through her multiple trainings and life experience, she designs with each client the therapeutic process that best meets their unique characteristics and needs. She has professional training in Person-Centered therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Bioenergetics, Psychodrama, and Modular-Transformational and Relational Psychoanalysis. Since 2014 she has been incorporating Dialogical and Collaborative Social-Constructionist approaches in her therapeutic practice.

Maria understands psychotherapy as a way for us to review and interpret in an ever-evolving new light our most significant life events, build fresh narratives of our biographies–and in the process gain new appreciation for how we give meaning to our (and, no less significantly, others to their) experiences; develop awareness of our patterns of thought, emotion, and motivation; and relate to ourselves and others in previously-untried roles. In thus transforming our ways of being and living, we increase our overall life quality and fulfillment. Based on mutuality, respect, trust and confidentiality, the therapeutic relationship is a safe space for putting into words troubling experiences we may never before have shared with anyone, expressing our suppressed voices, owning unacknowledged aspects of our identity, and rehearsing ways of embodying the positive insights uncovered in our therapeutic journey to a more flourishing life. Through therapy we become more integrated, understanding, and creative persons.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adults, Individuals and Couples.

Alva Robinson

LSW

Alva is a Licensed Social Worker who works with children, adolescents, young adults, parents, and families. She specializes in play therapy techniques, addressing issues of trauma, depression, anxiety, anger, and behavioral problems. She has worked in many settings prior to her practice including foster care, adoption, residential treatment facility, schools, and community mental health.

The parent-child relationship is surely among the most significant of our relationships. It can easily be as difficult and stressful as it is meaningful and joyous. Support and encouragement are key if and when the going gets rough.

Would you like to enhance and strengthen your relationship with your child? Would you like to support your childs ability to manage his/her emotions? Do you need help understanding and communicating with your child? Is your child worried, anxious or troubled and needing extra support?

Alva uses a client-centered approach, allowing the child or teen to work through their feelings in a non-directive way in a safe and trusting environment. She additionally works with families, supporting them through the therapeutic process alongside the child/teen.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Children, Teens, Adults, Individuals and Families.

Sarah Trotta

LCSW

People seek therapy for a number of reasons. Many times people come with a particular and precise problem to address, and other times people come with a general and thematic sense that they are not living their lives in a way that feels right or true. Whatever your reason for considering therapy, Sarah is thrilled at the opportunity to work together. She believes that therapy can be a space to develop a healthy and healing relationship in which you can safely explore the ghosts of your past and make sense of the way that they exist in your present moment; it is through this understanding that you can fully create the shape of your future.

Sarah obtained her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pennsylvania where she focused her learning on clinical work with survivors of trauma. While completing her MSW at Penn, she received the John Hope Franklin Combating American Racism Award for her attention to the great import of an anti-racist lens in clinical social work. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Clinical Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania, and her academic research focuses on the experience of psychological safety after a sexual assault.

Sarah uses a feminist and social justice lens in her work; she believes that any internal struggle is deeply connected to the social environment in which a person is situated. She believes fully in the power of a healing relationship and works collaboratively with her clients to find and honor their inner truth.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Individuals.

Merin Wexler

MSS, LCSW

We all have untapped resilience. Adversity can be a gift. These are Merin’s core beliefs. As a therapist her goal is to help you live the life you want. She believes change is possible at any stage of life. We are all life-long learners. Often the first step is speaking honestly and feeling understood.

Merin works with adults seeking relief from anxiety, depression, and relationship troubles. Many of her clients have suffered loss or trauma. With a background in education and in the arts, Merin believes that self-expression can help you live a life that is more rich and authentic.

A good therapist provides unconditional acceptance and an open mind. A sense of humor helps, too. Merin loves her work and looks forward to seeing how you two might work together.

Services Currently Offered: Works with Adults and Individuals.