Victoria Vaillancourt, LPC-A

Victoria received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2023 at Sacred Heart University with a double minor in Criminal Justice and Creative Writing. During her undergraduate career, she was a part of the psychology research team that studied therapy dogs’ effects on students’ cortisol levels and self-efficacy and later presented this research at a conference. She also had the opportunity to partner with The Exceptional Sidekick to foster and train a psychiatric service dog. She is in her final year at Sacred Heart University, obtaining her Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Her end goal is to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC).

Her career in mental health began about 3 years ago when she started as a mental health worker at an inpatient psychiatric facility. As a mental health worker, she provided care in day-to-day activities with pediatric, adolescent, and adult clients. After a year, she moved to the Creative Rehabilitation Services department, where she continues to work as a creative therapist. As a creative therapist, she runs psycho-educational groups, teaching clients life management skills. Alongside her job as a creative therapist, she also works in a long-term care facility with older adults as an assistant director of therapeutic recreation. In this role, she engages her residents in exciting group activities.

While Tori believes in a humanistic client-centered practice, she also recognizes the individual needs of each client she works with; molding her therapeutic style to their goals for therapy. She sees herself as a guide for her clients, helping them create their solutions and pathways to a happy and successful lifestyle. She seeks to incorporate creative approaches to therapy. She appreciates the techniques used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychoanalysis, and Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which connect behaviors with emotions and previous experiences to understand why we feel the way that we do and techniques for managing and coping with such.

In her personal life, she enjoys writing poetry, hiking, and creating her recipes in the kitchen. As an animal enthusiast, she loves spending time with her goats, chickens, turkeys, and her dog “Honey”. Outside of work, she spends lots of time in her garden and at local farmer’s markets.