About Samantha
“My goal is for you to feel empowered from our work together.”
Let Me Introduce Myself
Hi there! I’m Samantha Barnhart, LMSW, and you can call me Sam. I’m a dedicated Social Worker driven by a passion for fostering community, creativity, and personal growth. Specializing in working with teens, young adults, and adults embracing their neurodivergence, I offer a strengths-based, person-centered approach, drawing from a variety of evidence-based practices.
I have a background in serving community mental health and resource needs, as well as in crisis counseling. I have also worn more hats than I could count on both hands, and have spent a great deal of my time involved with music and art events. My hope is to bring more understanding and appreciation for the things about you that are divergent from what is “normal”.
“Empathy is not relating to an experience, it’s connecting to what someone else is feeling about an experience” - Brene Brown
My Journey To Becoming A Therapist
From an early age, I wanted to help others in some way. Guided by personal experiences and a deep empathy for those affected by trauma, I realized that I wanted to help others manage and grow from their experiences. That’s why I chose to pursue Social Work, and shortly thereafter found the word I center my practice around: empowerment.
I am ever in the process of learning more about myself like we all are. As someone who has dealt with depression, anxiety, trauma, and most of my life feeling somehow different, it took a long time to invest myself into finding the right therapist after spending time with those I didn’t connect with. My experiences with therapy have since underscored the value of seeking support which embraces one's neurodivergence as a source of strength. This, I take into my practice with clients.
“Let’s collaborate to create your best life!”
What You Can Expect
I provide a safe space to explore what’s on your mind, who you want to be, and how to get there. We will focus on your strengths while exploring what makes you, you! As we work through that, we can make positive changes through identifying areas where growth would be helpful, too. We can also draw upon the hidden “superpowers” that accompany neurodivergence in our collaborative process to find the best way to help you achieve your goals.
A unique perspective I’m bringing to the table is an alternative definition for the word “flow”. The creative communities I’m in have different ways of expressing this concept, but it manifests as finding yourself immersed in your experiences, and finding those experiences rewarding. I would love to incorporate this concept to help bring more flow into your life.
I take a trauma-informed approach to all of the work I do. I am a safe space for people in the LGBTQIA2S+ community and strive always to provide culturally sensitive care to my clients. I recognize being neurodivergent in a world set up for neurotypicals can be traumatizing in itself, not to mention everything else that happens in our lives! In our work together, your story, strengths, and goals will guide us on the right path toward your healing, growth, and self-understanding. Let’s get creative in discovering how your uniqueness can propel you further!
