Gayle Waitches

Welcome to my practice!

I am a psychotherapist who provides counseling services for individuals, couples and families navigating myriad challenges including relationship concerns, academic stressors, feelings of anxiety and depression, trauma, life transitions, grief, identity, self-esteem, illness, and others. My goal is to provide a trustworthy, authentic, consistent and loving space which honors the many complexities of our shared humanity.

If you have questions, or would like to set up an initial complementary consultation, you may contact me at 503-705-8489, or head to my online booking page. Feel free to browse my website for more detailed information.

My study of medicine and counseling continues to awaken my awe and sensitivity to the challenges and wonders of being human. I offer a holistic, openhearted approach to therapy which welcomes all of who you are and rests on the belief that you hold trustworthy impulses for health, wholeness and Self-love. Our work together will be a safe and collaborative journey through which you lead the way through your life’s digestion process. A crucible for transformation, deep intimacy with oneself or another requires courage and authenticity.

I embrace multicultural humility and affirm people of all genders, abilities, races, ethnicities, spiritualities, religions and other intersectional diversities

I am both a physician and an individual, couple and family therapist intern. I obtained a MS from Portland State University while also immersing in a year-long internship at the M.E.T.A. Institute (Mindfulness Experiential Therapeutic Approaches) where I studied Hakomi and other mindfulness-based approaches, including Re-Creation of the Self and Attachment Therapy. I have also studied Richard Schwartz's Internal Family Systems (IFS) (Level 1 and 2 graduate, and Toni Herbine Blank's Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO ) (Level 1 graduate), Diana Fosha's attachment-based Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), (Level 1 graduate), and Les Greenberg's Emotion Focused and Susan Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), (level 1 externship), and Emotion Focused Therapy with Dr. Charles Edwards and Jaime Lynn Edwards. I have studied PolyVagal Theory with Deb Dana, Re-Creation of the Self with Jon Eisman, Fierce Love with Dr. SueAnne Piliero and the AEDP Institute, and Attachment Theory with META Institute.

I also hold a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Midwestern University in Chicago. I completed a Radiology Residency at the University of Chicago and a Body-Imaging Fellowship at the University of Chicago. I was a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Radiology prior to transitioning to private practice.