Online Therapy for Grieving & Stressed-out Women ∙ St. Louis, MO
Life is no longer the same, and honestly, neither are you.
Your world, once so steady,
has just been turned upside down.Your life is no longer what it was. It’s been upended by the grief and stress of a death, a health diagnosis, or any of midlife’s devastations. Nothing is the same, and you don’t know who you are anymore. You’re left shattered, spiraling, and feeling profoundly disoriented.
You’re smart and self-aware, but none of the things that usually help are helping nearly enough anymore. You truly don't know what to do now … even though you always know what to do. You’re left utterly lost amid the existential groundlessness of things falling apart.
To be human is to grieve who & what we’ve lost.
Bereavement Grief: Death & DyingThe death of a primary person in our life – a parent, partner, child, most beloved friend – doesn’t just shake the ground beneath our feet, it knocks us off our feet. You’ve never needed people more, but you’re feeling utterly alone. No one's saying or doing any of the right things; but, honestly, even you yourself are lost on what would feel remotely helpful right now.
Body Grief: Cancer & Chronic IllnessA life-changing diagnosis changes everything you thought you knew. It comes first with shock, and is quickly followed by the impossible: the complete upending of both your day-to-day and your existential understanding of yourself and your life. You’re keeping up a good face with some, falling apart with others, and privately collapsing in ways scary and new.
Midlife Grief: Losses quiet & loudThe grief of midlife is a sneaky bitch. Over your life’s handful of decades now, the losses quietly accumulated, and they now weigh heavy. You’re dumbstruck that they’ll only keep accumulating further. Aging parents; kids growing up; a marriage that crumbled along the way. You feel cursed by the sharpened awareness that everything, time included, is palpably limited.
Reclaim your connection to yourself & your life.
Even though you didn’t ask for ANY of this, life’s hardest moments offer an invitation to do the profound work of a lifetime: to bravely (radically!) rediscover yourself, reconnect with your life, and move forward with increased clarity, hard-earned meaning, and a deep sense of fulfillment.
And you can do all of that without fixing what can’t be fixed or changing what can’t be changed. I know it’s possible because I see it every day.
And so, to you, I extend a warm welcome.My work is devoted to helping support women just like you, in times just like these.
Rebecca Mercurio, LCSW
Hi! I’m Rebecca (she/her). Listen, I get it: this task of being human is hard. I also believe it to be absolutely worthwhile.
As humans, we’re a storytelling people. It’s how we make sense of ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. For me personally, women’s stories have always been central. As an undergrad – knowing I’d go on for a Master of Social Work degree and become a licensed therapist – I majored in Women’s Studies, with a focus on women’s lit.
That study of women’s lives, and the stories told both about and by them, is intimately connected to the work I do now. Women’s stories are potent, and women who lay claim to their own stories are an absolute force. It’s the privilege of my lifetime to do this work and be invited into the truth of women’s lives.
I’m not your typical therapist.
So many clients have told me that, because our work together is genuinely collaborative, they get so much more from this experience in therapy than they have before.
Sessions with me are dynamic and engaging. My style is entirely down-to-earth and without any formality. My work also relies on counterintuitive approaches. By embracing compassion and curiosity, we can unlock potent self-knowledge.
In the face of personal horrors, our work together fosters a deep and powerful hard-earned wisdom – even if you (understandably) wish you never had to have it.
FAQ
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The fee for each 50-minute therapy session is $225.
Yes, therapy is expensive, but here’s the thing: My rate reflects my commitment to you and to our work together. It ensures I can keep a small-enough caseload to provide you with the personalized and attuned care you want and deserve. You will not get lost in the shuffle here! I will remember things from previous sessions that will astound you! My rate also supports all the work I do outside of session that helps me be a better therapist for you during our time together in session.
I don’t accept insurance or provide superbills for out-of-network coverage, which I know is a bummer. Having a fully private-pay practice allows us full autonomy to make our work together exactly what you need, offers you greater privacy and way more flexibility with your services, and allows me to focus on our actual work together rather than on excessive and arbitrary administrative burdens.
I do accept HSA and FSA cards.
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My practice is focused on working with women. And trans women are women. No TERF BS here. If you identify as a woman, you belong and are welcome here. If you identify as a femme, you belong and are welcome here. If you are non-binary but grew up socialized as a girl/woman, you belong and are welcome here. Full stop.
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So, If you’d told me in spring 2020 that I would come to love online therapy and actually prefer it to in-person sessions, I would have laughed in your face. In fact, my partner did mention this possibility that spring (he and his damn optimism!), and I did, in fact, laugh in his face.
As it turns out, I just hated working from home during a freaking pandemic (!), but online therapy itself is great. So great, in fact, that my initial plan to then offer hybrid services (both in-person and online), starting in 2021, completely blew up, because even my clients continued to prefer the ease, convenience, and flexibility of meeting via telehealth.
And so here we are now, all these years later, still happily and successfully meeting entirely online!
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Maybe! I’m based in St. Louis, but I’m professionally licensed to work with clients throughout Missouri. Because all sessions are online, you can work with me as long as you’re physically located in the state of Missouri.
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Sessions are 50 minutes and are scheduled Monday - Thursday. I see clients between 8am - 3pm.
We’ll start by scheduling appointments either weekly or every other week. This cadence helps us get to know one another and build momentum in our work together.
Over time, though, flexibility with that cadence is both healthy and welcome. My goal, always, is that clients schedule no more, and no less, frequently than what is actually supportive of them at any given time.
The telehealth platform I use is super easy: you just click a link, enter your name to check in, and voila! You can also turn off your preview screen so you won’t be distracted by yourself!
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You alone get to decide how long you stay in therapy. That said, my style of therapy is not based on quick-hit strategies or a short-term, solution-focused approach. I’ve successfully worked with clients in the span of six months, and I also have clients who’ve worked with me over the span of a decade.
My approach is deeply relational (versus a protocol-based treatment of a specific diagnosis), and therefore well-suited to supporting many of my clients long-term, across various seasons of their lives. It’s such a profound privilege to be invited into someone’s life in this way.
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My practice is based in the liberatory values of equity and justice, and is guided by a fiercely feminist and anti-oppression worldview.
LGBTQ+ Celebratory | Racial Justice Allied | Body Liberation
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My approach is largely insight-driven and focused on making meaning of ourselves and of our lives. To support this depth work, I utilize evidence-based modalities, and I draw primarily from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Additionally, our work together is informed by some healthy doses of Feminist Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Positive Psychology approaches.
Let’s do the potent & profound work of a lifetime together.
With the right support, life’s hardest moments can offer the invitation of becoming more deeply human and ever more fully yourself. And if you’re in, I’m in.