Therapy can help you find freedom in being fully yourself and develop a better relationship with your own story.
I’m Yael DiPlacido, MSW, LCSW, founder of Life Balance Counseling. I work with thoughtful adults, helping professionals, caregivers, and people whose lives look functional from the outside while something inside feels anxious, depleted, disconnected, or stuck.
Many of my clients are highly responsible people. They are used to showing up, figuring things out, and taking care of what needs to be handled. They may also be carrying trauma, perfectionism, relationship pain, chronic stress, or the quiet exhaustion of being the person everyone else relies on.
How I work
My style is warm, engaged, and direct. I will listen closely, but I will not only sit back and nod. I offer questions, observations, education, practical tools, and compassionate challenges when they may help. We will pay attention not just to the story you tell, but also to the patterns, protective parts, emotions, and nervous-system responses beneath it.
My approach is collaborative. I bring clinical knowledge, curiosity, and honest feedback; you bring your lived experience, self-knowledge, and understanding of what matters to you. We decide together what needs attention and how to approach it.
I draw from EMDR, parts work, Gestalt therapy, mindfulness, somatic approaches, and trauma-informed nervous-system education. When working with people who identify as creative or spiritual, we build on these natural internal resources. Similarly, we can engage any interest or talent as part of the healing process.
I do not believe every person needs the same method. We will use what fits your needs, goals, readiness, and way of making sense of the world.
I offer LGBTQIA+-affirming, gender-affirming, and sex-positive therapy.
Experience and training
- Master of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, 2007
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Missouri
- Earlier clinical experience working with diverse client populations, with a primary focus on trauma recovery following intimate-partner and sexual violence
- Private practice since 2012
- Completed EMDRIA-approved EMDR basic training in 2015, followed by ongoing EMDR continuing education
- Two years of advanced Gestalt therapy training
- Ongoing professional development in parts work, mindfulness, somatic approaches, trauma-focused care, communication, and family systems
A human being, too
My understanding of balance is not theoretical. Like most people, I have had to learn and relearn how to listen inward, live with complexity, and return to myself when life pulls me away.
Outside the therapy room, I write, make things, experiment creatively, spend time with family, and remain endlessly curious about what helps people heal.
I offer online therapy throughout Missouri.
Life Balance Counseling 