Individual Counseling at Above the Tides

Personalized, Affirming Care That Honors Your Whole Self

At Above the Tides Counseling, I believe therapy should be as individual as the person seeking it. Your experiences, identity, challenges, and goals deserve more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Individual counseling is thoughtfully tailored to support your mental health, personal growth, and healing journey in a collaborative, compassionate, and nonjudgmental environment.

Our work begins with a comprehensive diagnostic assessment to better understand your history, current concerns, strengths, and areas of desired growth. Together, we develop a personalized treatment plan using evidence-based therapeutic approaches, including:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Identifying and challenging unhelpful thought patterns while developing healthier coping strategies.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Increasing psychological flexibility, practicing acceptance, and creating meaningful change aligned with your values.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Strengthening emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.

• Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Cultivating present-moment awareness, self-compassion, and emotional resilience.

• Polyvagal-Informed Approaches: Exploring nervous system responses, physiological stress, and strategies for building greater emotional and physical regulation.

With over 18 years of clinical experience, I provide trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming, culturally responsive care for adults navigating a broad range of mental health concerns, complex life circumstances, and recovery-related challenges.

Areas of Clinical Focus

I support adults navigating:

• ADHD, Autism & Neurodivergence: Including executive functioning difficulties, sensory sensitivities, emotional regulation, masking, burnout, and the experiences of adults who have been overlooked, misdiagnosed, or misunderstood.

• Anxiety, OCD & Related Concerns: Including chronic worry, rumination, perfectionism, overwhelm, and nervous system hyperarousal.

• Trauma & Complex Trauma: Including childhood and relational trauma, medical trauma, chronic stress, and trauma-related nervous system dysregulation.

• Depression, Grief & Life Transitions: Including loss, anticipatory grief, identity changes, adjustment difficulties, and major personal or professional transitions.

• Substance Use & Addiction Recovery: Including alcohol use disorder, drug use, relapse prevention, long-term recovery, and the emotional challenges associated with substance use.

• Behavioral Addictions: Including gambling, compulsive behaviors, and patterns that interfere with emotional well-being and daily functioning.

• Relationships & Personal Boundaries: Including interpersonal challenges, communication difficulties, people-pleasing, self-esteem, and establishing healthier boundaries.

• Caregiver Stress & Compassion Fatigue: Including burnout, emotional exhaustion, family caregiving, and the demands of caring for loved ones with chronic, serious, or terminal illnesses.

• Identity Exploration & Personal Growth: Including LGBTQ+ identities, self-acceptance, authenticity, and navigating societal or cultural expectations.

Women's Mental Health, Chronic Illness & Autoimmune Conditions

When Physical Health and Mental Health Intersect

Living with chronic illness can affect far more than physical health. Unpredictable symptoms, medical uncertainty, fatigue, pain, and the experience of feeling dismissed or misunderstood can profoundly affect emotional well-being, relationships, identity, and daily functioning.

I specialize in supporting women navigating the intersection of mental health, neurodivergence, hormonal changes, and chronic medical conditions, including:

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and dysautonomia

• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and hypermobile EDS (hEDS)

• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)

• Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD)

• Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

• Lupus and other autoimmune conditions

• Perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopausal transitions

• Chronic pain, fatigue, and other invisible or complex medical conditions

I have extensive clinical experience supporting individuals managing overlapping physical and psychological symptoms, including anxiety, nervous system dysregulation, medical trauma, chronic stress, and the emotional toll of living with persistent or poorly understood health conditions.

This work is particularly meaningful for individuals who have experienced medical invalidation, struggle with unpredictable symptoms, or feel overwhelmed by the pressure to maintain professional, family, and personal responsibilities while managing chronic illness.

Using evidence-based therapies, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation strategies, we explore how physical and emotional experiences interact. Our work focuses on reducing symptom-related anxiety, developing adaptable coping skills, strengthening self-advocacy, and improving functioning and quality of life.

Your symptoms deserve to be taken seriously. Therapy should help you navigate your experiences, not dismiss or minimize them.

Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapy

Supporting Your Brain, Not Trying to Change Who You Are

Neurodivergence is not a character flaw, a failure of motivation, or something that needs to be erased.

I provide neurodivergent-affirming counseling for adults with ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent presentations, including those diagnosed later in life or who have spent years masking their experiences to meet external expectations.

Therapy may explore executive dysfunction, emotional regulation, rejection sensitivity, sensory overwhelm, burnout, perfectionism, and the intersection of neurodivergence with anxiety, trauma, relationships, and identity.

Rather than focusing on conformity or forcing strategies that do not work for your brain, we collaborate to identify sustainable approaches that honor your individual cognitive style, strengths, challenges, and values.

The goal isn't to make you someone else. It's to help you build a life that works for you.

Supporting Those Who Care for and Serve Others

Healthcare Professionals, Veterans, First Responders, Educators & Caregivers

People who dedicate their lives to helping others often carry significant emotional responsibilities while receiving little support themselves.

I have extensive experience supporting:

• Veterans, active-duty military personnel, and military-connected individuals

• Department of Defense personnel and federal employees

• Healthcare professionals, including nurses, physicians, therapists, and other medical providers

• EMTs, paramedics, and first responders

• Teachers, educators, and individuals working in high-demand educational settings

• Professionals in high-stress, high-responsibility, and service-oriented careers

• Family caregivers supporting aging parents, chronically ill relatives, or loved ones with disabilities

• Individuals caring for loved ones receiving hospice, palliative, or end-of-life care

These roles can involve compassion fatigue, occupational burnout, moral injury, secondary traumatic stress, anticipatory grief, workplace stress, and the emotional exhaustion of continually prioritizing others.

For family and hospice caregivers, therapy also provides space to process ambiguous loss, grief, guilt, uncertainty, changing family dynamics, and the emotional complexity of caring for someone whose health is declining.

Our work may include processing difficult experiences, strengthening personal boundaries, developing sustainable coping strategies, and reconnecting with your identity outside your professional or caregiving responsibilities.

You spend so much of your life caring for others. You deserve care, compassion, and support, too.

Addiction, Recovery & Behavioral Health

With more than 18 years of clinical experience in addiction treatment and recovery-oriented care, I understand that recovery involves more than simply stopping a behavior.

I support adults navigating alcohol use disorder, substance use concerns, drug-related challenges, relapse prevention, gambling, and other compulsive behaviors.

Therapy may address emotional triggers, trauma, coping patterns, shame, relationships, stress, and the underlying experiences that contribute to problematic substance use or behavioral patterns.

I also provide support for professionals navigating substance use and recovery-related concerns, recognizing the unique challenges associated with high-responsibility careers, professional identity, confidentiality concerns, and maintaining personal well-being.

My approach emphasizes compassion, accountability, evidence-based strategies, and individualized recovery goals without shame or judgment.

Religious Trauma, Spiritual Exploration & Integrative Approaches

Healing Beyond Traditional Frameworks

I recognize that healing does not always fit neatly within conventional therapeutic frameworks. Our beliefs, cultural experiences, spiritual identities, and personal philosophies can significantly influence how we understand ourselves and the world.

In addition to traditional evidence-based psychotherapy, I offer opportunities to explore nontraditional and integrative perspectives when they are meaningful to the individual client.

These may include:

• Meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative practices

• Dream interpretation and exploration of personal symbolism

• Astrology as a reflective or meaning-making framework

• Non-Western philosophies and culturally diverse perspectives on healing

• Holistic approaches to emotional well-being and personal growth

• Spiritual identity exploration and rebuilding personal belief systems

I also have extensive experience supporting individuals healing from religious trauma, spiritual abuse, and involvement in high-control religious or ideological environments, including cult involvement.

This may include experiences within high-control groups, certain nondenominational church environments, coercive spiritual communities, or other belief systems in which individuals experienced fear, shame, manipulation, or loss of autonomy.

I welcome individuals navigating changes in religious or spiritual identity, including those exploring Buddhism, non-organized spiritual practices, secular worldviews, and other personally meaningful paths.

My approach respects traditional and cross-cultural perspectives, mainstream and global approaches, contemporary and diverse cultural frameworks, and both conventional and holistic understandings of well-being.

Evidence-based psychotherapy remains the clinical foundation of treatment, while optional spiritual, symbolic, or philosophical exploration may support personal reflection and meaning-making. These practices are not presented as scientifically established treatments for mental health conditions.

You do not have to abandon your beliefs, adopt new ones, or fit into someone else's worldview to receive compassionate, affirming care.

Additional Professional & Self-Pay Services

In addition to individual psychotherapy, I offer specialized self-pay services tailored to specific personal and professional needs.

These include:

• Bariatric Evaluations: Psychological assessments related to bariatric surgery preparation and associated behavioral health considerations.

• Career Consulting: Support with professional transitions, workplace challenges, career-related stress, burnout, and identifying goals aligned with personal values.

• Addiction Support for Professionals: Individualized assistance for professionals navigating substance use concerns, recovery, and the unique demands of their careers.

• Premarital Couples Guidance: Support for couples preparing for marriage, with an emphasis on communication, expectations, values, and relationship preparation.

These services are offered separately from traditional individual counseling when appropriate and may have different fees or eligibility requirements.

My Therapeutic Philosophy

Collaborative. Inclusive. Individualized.

The values guiding my practice include:

• Inclusivity and Affirmation: Providing a welcoming environment that respects LGBTQ+ identities, neurodivergence, cultural differences, disability, and diverse lived experiences.

• Cultural Responsiveness: Recognizing the influence of culture, systemic stressors, identity, and social experiences on mental health and well-being.

• Respect for Lived Experience: Honoring your understanding of your own experiences, symptoms, strengths, and needs.

• Trauma-Informed Care: Prioritizing emotional safety, collaboration, autonomy, and an understanding of how trauma can shape physical and psychological responses.

• Individualized Treatment: Recognizing that therapeutic tools and interventions must be adapted to the person, rather than expecting the person to adapt to the intervention.

• Ethical & Accessible Care: Supporting access to thoughtful, clinically appropriate mental health services while respecting individual circumstances and financial considerations.

Ongoing sessions provide a safe, supportive, and affirming environment to process difficult emotions, understand patterns, strengthen coping strategies, and create meaningful change at your own pace.

Whether you're navigating anxiety, ADHD, neurodivergence, trauma, chronic illness, burnout, grief, identity exploration, or significant life transitions, therapy is tailored to honor your voice, values, and lived experience.

Not every intervention works for every person. Treatment remains flexible, collaborative, and responsive to your individual needs.

You are the expert on your lived experience. My role is to help you navigate it with greater understanding, confidence, and compassion.

Convenient, Secure Online Counseling

Individual counseling sessions are offered virtually through secure telehealth platforms, making it possible to access support from the comfort and privacy of your own space.

Virtual therapy can be especially valuable for individuals managing chronic illness, mobility limitations, demanding professional schedules, caregiving responsibilities, or other barriers to traditional in-person appointments.

Services are available to eligible adults located in states where I am professionally licensed and authorized to practice.

Insurance & Payment Options

Accessible Care, Flexible Options

I believe meaningful mental health support should be accessible, and I offer several payment options to accommodate different circumstances.

Insurance Accepted

I accept participating insurance plans through third-party platforms, including Headway and Grow Therapy. Insurance eligibility and coverage depend on your specific plan, location, and network participation.

Self-Pay Counseling

For individuals without insurance or who prefer not to use insurance benefits, private-pay counseling is available.

Standard self-pay rate: $125–$150 per session.

Sliding-Scale & Reduced Self-Pay Rates

Reduced rates may be available based on financial need and availability. I encourage you to reach out to discuss potential options.

Group Counseling

Group counseling packages may be available at reduced self-pay rates, providing an affordable and supportive environment for connection, shared experiences, healing, and personal growth.

Group services are self-pay only.

No Insurance? Let's Talk.

If you do not have insurance, prefer to pay privately, or would like to discuss reduced self-pay rates, please reach out directly.

Email: Contact@abovethetides.com

Your financial circumstances should not prevent you from exploring available mental health support. Let's discuss options that may work for you.