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About Jennifer
Therapy is about returning to yourself.
I believe that every person carries within them an enduring capacity for healing. Sometimes that capacity becomes difficult to find.
Life can leave us disconnected from ourselves through childhood experiences, grief, emotionally harmful relationships, caregiving, burnout, chronic illness, anxiety, or simply years of putting everyone else's needs before our own. We may begin to question our instincts, silence our needs, or forget who we are beneath the roles we've learned to play.
I don't believe therapy is about fixing people.
I believe it's about creating the conditions where you can reconnect with the part of yourself that has always been there.
That belief inspired the name Heartwood & Bloom.
In every tree, the heartwood is its strong, steady center. Though hidden from view, it provides strength, resilience, and support throughout the tree's life. I believe people have a heartwood too, an inner self that remains present even when life has made it difficult to feel.
Bloom reminds us that growth doesn't happen because we force it; instead, it happens when the conditions are right.
Therapy is one way we create those conditions.
My Philosophy
Healing rarely follows a straight line.
There isn't one "right" way to heal because there isn't one "right" way to be human. Our relationships, identities, cultures, bodies, experiences, and environments all shape how we move through the world.
Many of the ways we survive difficult experiences once helped us.
Hypervigilance may have kept you safe.
People-pleasing may have protected important relationships.
Perfectionism may have helped you feel accepted.
Emotional numbness may have made overwhelming experiences more bearable.
Rather than judging these adaptations, I believe they deserve understanding and compassion. Therapy offers a place to become curious about the stories your mind and body have been carrying and to decide, with compassion, what still serves you and what you're ready to leave behind.
At the center of my work is relationship.
Research consistently shows that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is one of the strongest contributors to meaningful change, alongside the thoughtful use of evidence-informed interventions that fit each person's goals and circumstances.
I hope that therapy feels like a place where you don't have to perform, explain away your experiences, or have everything figured out before you arrive.
Instead, you get to be human.
My Approach
My path to becoming a therapist began long before graduate school.
For more than thirteen years, I have worked alongside children, adolescents, adults, and families in community mental health and social services through family support, advocacy, child welfare, substance use treatment, and case management. Those experiences deepened my respect for the resilience people carry and reinforced that healing happens within the context of relationship, community, and environment.
I earned my Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences from Oregon State University in 2013, and later my Master of Social Work from the University of Washington in 2025.
Today my work is trauma-informed, relational, strengths-based, and individualized.
Rather than relying on a single therapy model for everyone, I thoughtfully integrate evidence-informed approaches tailored to your goals, preferences, lived experience, and what feels most supportive to you.
Depending on your needs, our work may include conversation, mindfulness, nervous system awareness, creative expression, nature-based walk-and-talk therapy, or other experiential approaches that help connect insight with lived experience.
Healing isn't about finding the "right" technique, it's about finding an approach that helps you reconnect with yourself.
A Little About Me
Outside the therapy office, you'll usually find me walking with my Goldendoodle along the shoreline, caring for my houseplants, taking photographs, or exploring the forests and waterfronts of the Pacific Northwest.
Nature has become one of my greatest teachers. It reminds me that growth cannot be rushed, seasons always change, and resilience often develops quietly over time. These lessons naturally shape the way I practice therapy and are one of the reasons I offer nature-based walk-and-talk sessions. Sharing this connection aims to help clients feel grounded and supported in their own growth.
I'm also someone who enjoys creating. Photography, writing, and simple art-making help me notice things I might otherwise overlook. Creativity offers another way of understanding ourselves when words alone don't quite capture an experience. You don't have to consider yourself artistic to explore creativity in therapy. Drawing, story telling, and music can express and process something you don't have the words for.
My own lived experiences, such as my neurodivergence and chronic health conditions, inform my empathetic approach, helping clients feel understood and safe.
As someone who is neurodivergent, I've learned that there is no single "right" way to think, communicate, or heal. What looks like procrastination may be overwhelm. What looks like avoidance may be protection. That perspective reminds me to approach people with curiosity rather than assumptions.
Living with a chronic connective tissue disorder has deepened my appreciation for the relationship between mind and body. Pain, fatigue, energy, and physical health all influence emotional well-being. Because of this, I value flexibility, accessibility, and honoring what our bodies are communicating rather than expecting ourselves to push through.
As a queer therapist, I know how meaningful it can be to enter a space where you don't have to explain or defend who you are. I strive to create an affirming environment where people of all identities feel respected, welcomed, and able to show up authentically.
These experiences don't define my work, but they continue to shape how I listen, how I understand resilience, and how I hold space for the complexity of being human.
Credentials
Jennifer Ciccarelli, BS, MSW, LSWAIC
Licensed Social Worker Associate Independent Clinical
Washington License #SC.70019535
Supervised by Dania Y. Uritskiy, LICSW
Washington License #LW61143567
Bachelor of Science, Human Development and Family Sciences
Oregon State University
Master of Social Work
University of Washington
Before entering private practice, I spent two years providing supervised one-on-one mental health therapy, and more than a decade supporting children, youth, adults, and families through community mental health and social services. Those experiences continue to inform my commitment to providing thoughtful, compassionate, and individualized care.
It would be an honor to walk alongside you as you reconnect with your own heartwood and begin to bloom in ways that feel authentic to you.
Company
Terms of Service
© 2026 Heartwood and Bloom Counseling, PLLC. All rights reserved.
"Rooted in resilience. Growing toward authenticity."
jennifer@heartwoodandbloom.com
(206) 395-4502
Location
5470 Shilshole Ave NW, Ste 400, Seattle, WA 98107