Dr. Alyssa (Aly) Rowland (she/her/they/them) comes to Olympic Psychology Services after completing her counseling internship at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Dakota, after completing her undergraduate studies at Pacific Lutheran University. While she awaits the issue of her Washington State license, she is working as a "Post-Doctoral Psychology Resident." 

 

Dr. Rowland has experience working with children, adolescents, and adults, treating a variety of mental health concerns including but not limited to anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and trauma/stress-related disorders. Dr. Rowland has a particular passion for working with college-aged adults, as that life stage is a time of much transition and growth. She also enjoys working with individuals exploring various aspects of their sexual, gender, and cultural identities, and has experience providing gender-affirming care. They are committed to respecting and protecting space for the intersectionality of age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, and faith identities. They have experience providing crisis assessment, psychological and neuropsychological evaluations, as well as individual and group therapy. As a member of the queer community and a former college athlete, Dr. Rowland has a passion for working with those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community, and working with athletes of all orientations and identities.  

 

While her work is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) foundations, she aims to meet every client where they are, and provide evidence-based practices tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, including integrating art, games, and writing when appropriate. Dr. Rowland also will be running a Dungeons and Dragons-based social skills group at OPS, because she has learned that sometimes real-life problems call for fantasy solutions. Her goal when working with clients is to have each individual feel seen and understood as they are, while providing the tools and space clients need to grow and change as they wish.

 

In her free time, Dr. Rowland can be found with her partner kayaking on the Sound, hiking up the side of a mountain, or running through Tacoma’s parks. She also enjoys reading and creating whenever she gets the chance, and she takes far too many pictures of their two cats, Dobby Rey and Professor Remus Lupin.