Meet your therapist
Hi, I'm Dana Polley.
I'm a licensed therapist, and I work with women who feel stretched thin, disconnected from themselves, or caught in the quiet, internal experiences that are hard to put into words.
My path into private practice was both professional and deeply personal.
I spent years as a school-based therapist, working closely with children and families — learning to see people not as a set of symptoms, but within the full context of their lives, relationships, and environments. Before that, I studied international studies and worked in nonprofit and government settings. That background shaped something essential in how I understand people: the world you've lived in matters. The experiences you've carried matter. Nothing about who you are exists in a vacuum.
Then I became a mom — and everything shifted.
I found myself in the middle of a season I hadn't prepared for. Overwhelm I couldn't think my way out of. A version of myself that felt unfamiliar. I needed space to slow down, to make sense of what I was carrying, to feel understood — not fixed, not redirected. Understood.
That experience is part of why I do this work the way I do.
My approach
My approach starts from a simple belief: everything you're experiencing makes sense.
Not “makes sense” in a dismissive, of-course-it-does way. I mean it more precisely than that: there's a reason things feel the way they do. There's a story underneath the anxiety, the disconnection, the pattern you keep returning to. And when we slow down enough to understand it — not just manage it — something shifts.
In our work together, we'll pay attention to both what's happening in your mind and what's happening in your body. We'll get curious about what's underneath the surface, not just what's showing up on it. We'll move at a pace that feels steady, not rushed.
I'm not here to push you to be different. I'm here to help you understand yourself more deeply — and find your way back to feeling like you.
The meaning behind the name
Why River Rock?
River rocks aren't shaped by force. They're shaped gradually — by consistent movement over time, by the relationship between water and stone.
That's how I think about this work. We're not here to chip away at you or push you into a new shape. We build a steady relationship. We create enough safety for your system to process what it's been carrying. Change comes the way it always does — slowly, organically, from the inside out.
More than one thing can be true: a rock can be solid and shaped. A river can be powerful and gentle. You can be resilient and impacted, protective and vulnerable, certain and uncertain — sometimes all at once.
Ready to begin?
If something here resonated — even if you're not quite sure what you're looking for yet — you're welcome to reach out.
There's nothing you need to have figured out before we talk.
Book your free call