EHNW Student Salon

How do you know you’re actually helping?

Facilitated by: Clare Knudsen, BS, and Sara J. Smith, MA, LMHCA

Date: Saturday November 15, 2025
Time: 10am–12pm Pacific Time
Fee: $20 for non-affiliates. $15 for students. $0 for EHNW affiliates

Online: via Zoom
Host: Existential-Humanistic Northwest (EHNW)

If you’re a student or professional in the helping field, chances are this question brings up some amount of anxiety in you. In a world run by insurance and the managed care framework, we are primarily taught that the measure of helping clients lies in results. Did the client’s depression improve? Is the client maintaining sobriety? Have you achieved their initial goals? 

In this salon designed for those old and new to the field, we’ll have a collective conversation about this and alternative understandings of what it means to actually “help” someone. Through an Existential-Humanistic framework, we will consider aspects of helping that expand on and diverge from the dominant managed care model. These may include emphases on the values of presence, process, and the dialogical. In sum, perhaps we will find that “help” is more complex and relationship-oriented than reductionistic and results-oriented. 

About the Facilitators

Clare Knudsen is a student in Western Seminary’s CACREP-accredited master’s program in clinical mental health counseling, currently interning at Charis Counseling in Vancouver, WA. She received additional training in Existential-Humanistic psychotherapy core skills from the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) and joined the board of EHNW in 2024. As a counselor and human, she believes in the power of presence and safe connection. Outside of counseling, she enjoys gardening, spending time with people, playing on the pottery wheel, and learning new things. 

Sara J. Smith, approaches therapy from an Existential-Humanistic framework, emphasizing authenticity, presence, and meaning-making in the therapeutic relationship. Drawing from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), experiential methods, and relational approaches, Sara tailors therapy to each person with respect for their lived experience. With a background in Community Mental Health, Sara is committed to social justice, cultural humility, and honoring the inherent worth of every individual. Outside of work, Sara enjoys creative writing, TTRPGs, spending time with friends and family, and engaging in a variety of creative activities. Sara holds an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from George Fox University. For any questions, contact Beth Swain at events@ehnwpdx.org 

Registration will close 24hrs before the event starts. Please make sure to register beforehand so we can email Zoom links and event info.

Registration >>

As this event is being held by EHNW in Portland please contact Beth Swain at events@ehnwpdx.org .with any questions.

EHNW Vision Statement: Existential-Humanistic NorthWest is here to impact the world through our commitment to and passion for existential-humanistic values of authenticity, integrity, responsibility, inter-connectedness, inclusion, and awe.