Meet the Therapist
I founded Light of the Moon Counseling as a way to provide highly individualized, compassionate, & judgement-free therapy services
Emily Brewster (she/her)
MSW, LCSW, LICSW
Owner & Therapist
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My Philosophy
My name is Emily Brewster (she/her), and I am a
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW/LCSW).
I believe therapy can be a space for healing, growth, self-understanding, and meaningful change. Therapy offers an opportunity to slow down, explore your experiences with curiosity and compassion, and move toward a life that feels more grounded and authentic.
My style is warm, collaborative, and compassionate, while also recognizing when practical tools, structure, and guidance can help support growth and change.
I strive to create a therapeutic relationship where you feel genuinely seen, supported, and safe enough to explore both the painful and hopeful parts of your story. You don't have to be perfect or have it all together here.
My goal is to reduce suffering while honoring the unique values, identities, and lived experiences of each individual. Together, we work to build insight, resilience, self-trust, and practical tools that support lasting change, deeper connection, and a greater sense of meaning and purpose in your life.
Therapeutic Approach
Rather than focusing solely on symptom reduction or diagnosis, I help clients develop a different relationship with their inner and outer experiences. Together, we explore patterns that may be keeping you stuck and build skills that support greater flexibility, resilience, and alignment with what matters most to you.
I use an integrative and process based approach, which means I draw from a range of research-backed therapeutic modalities and tailor them to each individual rather than relying on a single method.
This allows therapy to be flexible, responsive, and grounded in what is most helpful for you, rather than trying to fit you into one specific framework.
It does not mean that therapy is random or unstructured. Instead, it is intentional, evidence-informed, and guided by your goals, your needs, and what feels most supportive. I blend these approaches with
heart-centered care and authentic connection, because I believe healing happens in relationship as much as it does through technique.
I am continually engaged in both professional & personal development to deepen my understanding & expand the ways I can support clients in meaningful ways.
Modalities Include
Process-Based Therapy (PBT)
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT)
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
Written Exposure Therapy (WET)
Ego States/ Parts Work
Schema Therapy
Somatic Informed
Person-Centered
Psychodynamic
More About Me.
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I have called the Pacific Northwest home for most of my life (shout out to my early years in Houston, Texas, though), and I feel grateful for the people who make up my world. My family & community bring meaning, humor, and support to my everyday life. I wear many hats including, spouse, mother, sister, therapist, & lifelong learner.
I grew up as the daughter of a first-generation immigrant from Guatemala and another parent from the Southern United States. I was raised speaking both English and Spanish, and this bicultural upbringing has shaped how I understand identity, belonging, and communication. It also informs how I think about the many ways culture and family systems shape the meaning people make of their emotions and lived experiences. In the therapy room, it helps me hold complexity with care, especially when language, culture, and expectations are all interacting at once.
I am also a US Army Veteran, where I served as a Mental Health Technician (68X) and first began my path toward social work. That experience shaped not only my clinical foundation, but also my deep respect for people navigating intense, high demand, and complex systems. Before starting my private practice, I worked across a range of settings and populations, including military mental health systems, schools, outpatient care, and inpatient and intensive psychiatric environments. I have also studied as a Grief and Death Doula, which has deeply informed how I sit with loss, transition, and meaning-making in therapy.
As an ADHDer and complex human living with OCD myself, I bring both clinical training and lived experience to my work. This informs a genuine compassion for struggles like intrusive thoughts, distractibility, perfectionism, and the exhaustion that can come with trying to manage your mind. I am deeply passionate about the belief that diagnoses and symptoms do not define a person. They are part of someone’s experience, but not the whole of who they are.
I am especially passionate about supporting individuals recovering from complex trauma, OCD, and grief and loss. It is an honor to witness people reconnect with themselves, loosen the grip of shame, and begin to feel more at home in their own lives, bodies, & mind.
Outside of work, I enjoy traveling in my RV, listening to audiobooks, cooking, watching documentaries and scary movies, hearing ghost stories (I LOVE New Orleans & Appalachian lore), collecting trinkets, rocks, fun tattoos, stretching, and laughing a lot with the people I love.
I have been honored to encounter the most unique,
resilient, and courageous humans in my work thus far.
Credentials
Licensed Independent Clinical
Social Worker (LICSW)
Washington State
License #LW61468962
Licensed Clinical
Social Worker (LCSW)
Oregon State
License #L14916