Lily Panunto
Part rainbow sprinkles, part old soul. Knows what it’s like to rebuild from the blueprint someone else drew. Believes your weird is your superpower.
Credentials: Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Pre-licensed Professional Counselor
Pronouns: she/her
Role: Therapist
Locations: Collegeville & Virtually
Accepting New Clients: Yes
Hi, I’m Lily. I am so happy you are here.
Therapy as a concept is weird. You’re supposed to sit down with a stranger and share incredibly vulnerable things. Sometimes you’re more nervous than excited to be here. That makes sense. Who enjoys talking about the things that make them distressed? Here’s what I want you to know: you don’t have to have the right words. You don’t have to be excited. You just need to show up, and I’ll meet you where you are. I work with people who feel deeply, think constantly, and carry things they didn’t ask to carry. You may be confused about why you do the things you do, or maybe you know exactly why you do the things you do but just can’t get yourself to slow down enough to stop doing them.
A lot of my work is with individuals experiencing trauma, eating disorders, anxiety, and/or OCD. I believe in helping people go beyond those diagnoses so they can understand why things happen, not just cope with what is happening. When we understand the “why” behind our experiences, then we can begin to shift toward healing and developing self-compassion.
I’m not here to fix you because I don’t believe you need to be fixed. I’m here to hold space and give you permission to step into it as your true, fully human version of yourself. I am warm and compassionate, but I’ll also gently challenge you when it helps you grow. I bring my dry sarcastic humor into sessions (fair warning). I believe you’re the expert of your own life, and I’m just here to walk beside you through it all.
Therapy with me isn’t about having it all together. It’s about getting curious about yourself and your past. It’s about leaning into the discomfort of letting yourself be seen by another human, and more so leaning into the belief that you make sense in the context of your story. So show up when you’re ready, show up if you’re nervous, show up if you’re hopeless and think therapy is all a bunch of nonsense.
Just show up, and we will go from there.
My Specialties
My clients tend to:
• Show up for everyone else but have a hard time showing up for themselves
• Feel confused about why they do the things they do
• Experience big emotions and struggle to understand or manage them
• Struggle with their relationship to food, their body, or both
• Feel like they are living in a world where they are different from everyone else
• Carry trauma they haven’t fully processed or understood (and didn’t ask to carry!)
• Feel stuck between who they are and who they think they’re supposed to be
The Specialties List In Clinical Terms…
Therapy Services
Individual Therapy (Rate $120)
Teens, Young adults, and Adults
Group Therapy
What I Learned on Paper
In Theory
I don’t believe in sticking rigidly to one approach because you’re not a textbook case, and your growth and healing won’t be either. I pull from Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychodynamic work, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), but how I use these modalities depends entirely on who’s sitting across from me and what they need.
I draw on polyvagal theory for psychoeducation because I think understanding your nervous system changes everything. When you realize your freeze response isn’t weakness but survival, you can start working with your body instead of against it. When you understand that your anxiety is trying to protect you, not ruin your life, you can befriend it instead of fighting it. Sometimes just understanding what’s happening in your body is the first step towards healing and growth. While I will bring in education, I will never be directive in a way that takes away your agency.
I’m also trauma-informed in everything I do. It means I understand that your “symptoms” are actually adaptations. They made sense at one point, even if they don’t serve you anymore. It also means I’ll never push you into something you’re not ready to do. We will always move at your pace.
My work is shaped by my belief that every person is doing the best they can with what they have. I believe your reactions, your habits, your coping mechanisms all make sense in the context of your story. I’m not here to make you feel like something is wrong with you. I’m here to help you understand yourself. I believe therapy works best when you stop trying to fix yourself and start accepting yourself (which is the epitome of easier said than done). When you stop fighting who you are and start getting curious about why you are the way you are, then the real work happens.
What Therapy with Me is Actually Like
In Practice
Therapy with me is warm, empathetic, and real. I don’t have all the answers. I’m not going to sit across from you and tell you exactly what to do or hand you a step-by-step plan to fix your life (because if that was a thing then I wouldn’t have a job). Instead, I will show up as a real person who genuinely cares about understanding your story. I will help you connect the dots between your past and present, and I will gently challenge you when I think you’re selling yourself short. I will always be there to sit with you, even when you would rather be anywhere else than the therapy room.
You’re the expert on your own life. My job is to create a collaborative space where you feel safe enough to figure things out for yourself, where you can explore without judgement, and where you can be messy and confused while still feeling like you make sense.
So no, I don’t have all the answers. But I do have curiosity, compassion, humor and a genuine belief that you’re more capable than you think you are. And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need.
Why This Work Matters to Me
I became a therapist because I believe connection is healing. I was drawn to this field because it offers a unique opportunity to form genuine connections with others in ways that don’t often exist outside of the therapy room. After navigating my own challenges, I realized how powerful it is to be truly seen and heard by another person. I am deeply passionate about providing others with that experience by creating a space where they can explore their experiences, feel understood, and begin to heal.
I know what it’s like to sit in a therapy room and feel listened to but not heard and then have to go back to your life outside of therapy and continue to carry everything quietly while everyone around you assumes you’re fine. There is nothing worse than walking out of a session and thinking that you just wasted an hour of your life and money you will never get back. I never want that to be the case for you, and I want the space we create to be your space to show up and everything doesn’t have to be fine. I want that space to be your space where you have the permission to say the things that others say you have “too much to say” about or feel the things that you have been told you are “too sensitive” for feeling. I believe your emotions and mind are not problems, but rather superpowers that others in your life who criticize them lack for themselves.
When I was a teenager, I used to argue with therapists and thought “self-compassion” and “acceptance” were the dumbest concepts in the world. Now, I talk about them constantly in sessions. Growth is a transformative, and sometimes ironic, process. No matter what this process looks like for you, I would be honored to be a part of it.
