Psychotherapist & HR Consultant

For the person you are.
The work you do.
And the life happening around both.

It’s work.
It’s life.
It’s complicated.
It’s HR Therapy.

The ambition. The anxiety. The relationships. The expectations. Everything you’re carrying while looking like you’ve got it handled.

I’m Britta, a psychotherapist and HR consultant. I help people understand the experiences, relationships, and patterns shaping how they feel, live, and lead—and help organizations care for the people doing the work.

You might be here for yourself, your family, your friends, or your company. We can start with what’s or who bringing you here. You don’t need a fully formed explanation. Or a presentation.

Explore Therapy →
Explore HR Consulting. →

It’s personal.
Even when it’s professional.

You might be navigating a transition, grieving a loss, feeling overwhelmed, or noticing that being “the capable one” has become a full-time job of its own.

You might be questioning yourself, your relationships, or the life you worked so hard to build. Wanting a change, or having one forced on you. Starting a job, leaving a job, becoming a parent, navigating divorce, building a home, a company, and a life. All at once and these things don’t coordinate calendars or your energy.

You’re making decisions, making deals, making dinner, making it all happen, and wondering why slowing down feels harder than staying busy.

You’re good at getting things done and a little less good at knowing where to start. Maybe the ambition is still there, but the energy isn’t. Or things look fabulous from the outside, and you’re wondering why they don’t feel that way inside.

You may be overfunctioning, overworking, overdoing, all while overthinking. You anticipate the needs, remember the things, pick up the slack, and replay the conversations (over and over). You’re very good at making things happen. You’re accomplished.

You’re also unfinished. There’s room for both. You’re still becoming, still developing, still learning.

There’s room here for all of it: what happened, how you got through, what you’re still carrying, what you want, and whether you’re ready for change. Some parts of life don’t become easier just because you understand them, or have been through them before.

You don’t have to be in crisis to be curious about yourself.

Psychotherapy Services

Therapy is for making sense of what you’ve been through, navigating what’s happening now, and finding more choice in what comes next.

It’s finding support that fits.

Psychotherapy

Space for what you’re experiencing.

Explore stress, anxiety, grief, identity, relationships, and the ways you’ve learned to cope. Together, we work toward greater understanding, emotional regulation, and ways of responding that support the life you want.

Founder & Executive Therapy

For the person behind the title.

An understanding of the world you work in, with room for your whole life. We explore ambition, responsibility, identity, relationships, and what happens when being capable becomes being responsible for everything.

There’s space for stress, burnout, loss, grief, addiction, and the patterns that follow you from the boardroom to into relationships, friendships, family dynamics, and those rare moments when you’re finally alone with your thoughts.

Together, we get curious about who you are beyond being productive, needed, or in charge—and what you need to feel connected, supported, and more like yourself.

Couples Counseling

For what happens between you.

Explore communication, conflict, trust, intimacy, and the expectations each person brings (or doesn’t bring) to the relationship. Together, we work to understand recurring patterns, express needs, and create opportunities for repair and connection.

EMDR Therapy

When understanding an experience hasn’t changed how it feels.

EMDR offers a structured approach to processing distressing memories, trauma, and the beliefs and emotional responses connected to them.

Our work includes preparation, grounding, and attention to your needs, readiness, and sense of safety. The goal is to ease the impact of past experiences, create more choice in how you respond, and help you move forward with greater room for connection, possibility, and joy.

HR Consulting

Experienced HR leadership with people at the center.

I support founder-led companies in building thoughtful people practices, clearer systems, and healthier cultures throughout the employee journey, from candidate through alumni. Drawing on more than 20 years in HR leadership, I bring an understanding of creative businesses and the everyday experiences of the people at every level.

I believe that when work works better, life works better.

It’s work. It’s personal. It’s fine. It’s really not fine. It’s ambition. It’s exhaustion. It’s love. It’s complicated. It’s a boundary. It’s uncomfortable. It’s familiar. It’s not helping. It’s leadership. It’s lonely. It’s success. It’s still not enough. It’s grief. It’s also joy. It’s progress. It’s happening slowly. It’s you. It’s me. It’s Britta. It’s HR Therapy.

It’s work. It’s personal. It’s fine. It’s really not fine. It’s ambition. It’s exhaustion. It’s love. It’s complicated. It’s a boundary. It’s uncomfortable. It’s familiar. It’s not helping. It’s leadership. It’s lonely. It’s success. It’s still not enough. It’s grief. It’s also joy. It’s progress. It’s happening slowly. It’s you. It’s me. It’s Britta. It’s HR Therapy.

It’s Britta

Before It’s HR Therapy, there was itsalarsen, inspired by the labels in our clothes that told anyone who found them which family they belonged to. The label identified the family. Knowing which Larsen was another story.

As the seventh of ten children, six arriving by adoption and four by birth, I was often mistaken for a sister I resembled. I found myself saying, “It’s Britta,” over and over. Eventually, it became more than an introduction. It shaped how I saw people, how I led, and what became my purpose: seeing the individual within the whole.

I learned early that sharing a home doesn’t mean sharing the same experience. Someone needs more structure. Someone needs more freedom. Someone just wants to be heard. Everyone needs to be acknowledged. There were plenty of opportunities to practice teamwork, negotiation, and support.

Belonging to a group matters. Being seen as an individual within it matters, too. That understanding has shaped how I live, relate, and lead—as a daughter, sister, friend, partner, mom, ex-wife, co-parent, colleague, manager, executive, HR leader, founder, student, board member, advocate, and citizen.

That understanding followed me into my first job at 13, to NYC at 20, and through nearly three decades at founder-led creative companies, including more than 20 years in HR leadership, and now in how I work as a psychotherapist.

For years, people left conversations with me saying, “That felt like HR therapy.” Those conversations, and a desire to better understand the emotional experiences showing up in people’s lives, helped inspire me to earn my master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Northwestern University. My studies emphasized multiculturalism and social justice, and my thesis explored the distinction between executive coaching and executive therapy.

Today, I’m a Mental Health Counselor with a Limited Permit (MHC-LP), practicing under clinical supervision through NIAM Counseling & Wellness Practice and offering virtual sessions via SimplePractice. I work with individuals and couples, with a specialty in supporting founders and executives. I bring warmth, curiosity, directness, and humor to conversations that can feel anything but easy.

There’s room for who you are beyond what you do—and what you need beyond getting through the day.

Get To Know Me →
My Family →
My Work with Founders →

From runways and photo shoots to boardrooms, retreat centers, and now the therapy room, the settings have changed.
My attention has not.

It’s always been on people and cultures.

I care about each person, regardless of role, rank, or identity. I’m curious about what they create, what they carry, and what it costs them to keep going.

My mission is to make things better.

My Approach

  • My approach is collaborative, integrative, and trauma-informed.

    I draw on psychodynamic, narrative, and person-centered perspectives, human development, attachment, culture, and attention to how stress and emotion are experienced in the body.

  • Together, we explore your relationships, the ways you cope, the defenses you’ve developed, and the strengths you draw on.

    We consider what has helped you get through—and what may no longer be helping you live the way you want.

  • We can explore your stress responses, how you ask for support, or respond to conflict.

    We will notice how you experience closeness, what happens when you feel overwhelmed, threatened, or under pressure, and what helps you feel more present and able to choose your response.

  • There’s room for ambition, anxiety, trauma, addiction, grief, loss, and change.

    There’s also room for joy, connection, and figuring out what you actually want—using the cycle of change to understand where you are and take steps toward making it happen.

  • Our work includes reflection, psychoeducation, practical tools, somatic practices, and EMDR, depending on your needs and readiness.

    I bring psychoeducation into our conversations because understanding a pattern can offer language, perspective, and a little less self-blame and shame.

Articles & Reflections

It’s something to think about.
Reflections on work, life, mental health, and the ongoing experience of be(com)ing.

Friday Reflections
A little perspective before you close the laptop.

Sunday Scaries
For everything that shows up before the week does.

Monday, Already?
Work, school, feelings, and the calendar’s questionable sense of timing.

Read Articles & Reflections →

Human Development & My Book.

It’s becoming.
At every age.

Our experiences of trust, independence, identity, connection, and purpose shape how we relate to ourselves and others. These themes begin long before we have a job title and continue throughout our lives, shaping how we navigate relationships, parenting, work, loss, and change.

Human development was my favorite course in grad school. It gave me a way to make sense of my own story, and deepened my curiosity about how we keep becoming throughout our lives.

Drawing on Erik Erikson’s eight biopsychosocial stages, we explore where you’ve been, what you’re navigating now, and what you hope might come next—with room for your culture, experiences, and individual path through life.

Trust · Autonomy · Initiative · Competence · Identity · Intimacy · Contribution · Reflection

These themes also shape my forthcoming book, You’re Doing It: Stages of Becoming. Part memoir, part psychoeducation, it brings together personal stories, human development, attachment, addiction, and nearly three decades of working with people to explore how we become who we are—and how we keep becoming through relationships, ambition, loss, joy, and change. With all the parts that never make it onto a resume.

We keep becoming.

At any age, we can develop greater awareness, revisit patterns, overcome to become, while practicing new ways of relating, leading, and being.

At any age, we can develop greater awareness, revisit patterns, and work through what holds us back as we practice new ways of relating, leading, and being.

Explore My Forthcoming Book →

Who were you becoming before you knew you had a choice? What did life teach you about who you had to be, and who do you want to become?

Explore the Eight Stages of Becoming
(You and everyone you know are in one right now!)

  • Stage 1: Infancy (Birth–1 year)

    Crisis: Trust vs. Mistrust
    Virture: Hope
    *
    Our earliest relationships introduce us to safety, care, and whether others will respond to our needs.

    Can you let someone show up for you without preparing to be disappointed?

  • Stage 2: Toddler (Ages 1–3)

    Crisis: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt
    Virtue: Will
    * *
    As we begin doing things ourselves, we explore independence, choice, and what happens when we make mistakes.

    Are you making your own choices, or asking for permission without realizing it?

  • Stage 3: Preschool (Ages 3–6)

    Crisis: Initiative vs. Guilt
    Virtue: Purpose
    * * *
    We begin initiating activities, expressing ideas, and discovering how others respond to our curiosity.

    What would you begin if wanting something didn’t make you feel guilty?

  • Stage 4: School (Ages 6–12)

    Crisis: Industry vs. Inferiority
    Virtue: Purpose
    * * * *
    Learning, practicing, and receiving feedback help shape our sense of competence.

    Who are you when you’re not proving you’re good at something?

  • Stage 5: Adolescence (Ages 12–18)

    Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion
    Virtue: Fidelity
    * * * * *
    We explore who we are, what we believe, and where we belong. L

    How much of your life feels like you—and how much feels like who you learned to be?

  • Stage 6: Early Adulthood (Ages 18–40)

    Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation
    Virtue: Love
    * * * * * *
    We explore how to build meaningful relationships while maintaining a sense of self.

    Do people know you, or just know they can count on you?

  • Stage 7: Middle Adulthood (Ages 40–65)

    Crisis: Generativity vs. Stagnation
    Virtue: Care
    * * * * * * *
    Our attention may turn toward contribution, care, and what we want to help grow.

    What are you giving your energy to, and is it what you want to help grow?

  • Stage 8: Late Adulthood (Ages 65+)

    Crisis: Integrity vs. Despair
    Virtue: Wisdom
    * * * * * * * *
    We reflect on our lives, making meaning of our choices, relationships, accomplishments, and regrets.

    If your life stopped being a list of accomplishments, what would make it feel like a life you’re glad you lived?

An Invitation
It’s worth talking about.

You don’t have to wait until everything feels unmanageable to ask for support.

Whether you’re looking for therapy or HR guidance, let’s talk about what’s hard, what you need, and how we might make it better.

Let’s Connect →

Find information about virtual sessions, availability, and getting started on my Contact page.