About
Licensed Professional Counselor
Kelly is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in trauma and PTS symptoms. She has a passion for working with active-duty military, veterans and first responders, and those that care for the warrior class. Unintentionally, she found herself in prior counseling positions surrounding the crisis and a high uptempo environment: child protective services, pregnancy crisis centers, and hospital ER intake.
Finding The Unit
From 2015-2019 Kelly was the Lead Triage Coordinator therapist in a Psychiatric ER. It was a highly stressful job working closely with first responders and licensed professionals to oversee a safe and thorough intake process for anyone who came through the doors of the ER (voluntary, involuntary detention, handcuffs, and gurney). She is used to staying on her toes in an adrenaline rush environment while trying to calm the military and civilians during times of distress. She simultaneously began working on the locked units with active duty in the hospital as a substance abuse clinician. She quickly realized that although addressing the presenting problem of substance was needed, a more profound passion began to emerge—the drive to work on the combat military unit. Kelly began to discover the core issues of depression, anxiety, fear, and post-traumatic stress symptoms that were not being addressed and began to train as a trauma therapist. Kelly transitioned to warriors heart, a warrior-class treatment center, in the Texas Hill Country in 2018 and is currently the lead trauma dual clinician. She has developed a footing in the Special Operations Forces (SOF) community and trains therapists who work with warriors.
The Big 3
She is trained in the leading trauma modalities of Prolonged Exposure (PE), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). She also loves bringing extroversion skills and energy during group therapy. She finds passion in leading military groups on combat trauma, military sexual trauma, PTSD symptoms, Complex Grief, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills, spiritual development, and substance education/process. Her treatment style is in line with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help clients discover and recognize root causes and core beliefs.
Kelly's Passion
In addition to counseling, she has 13 years of marketing & communication experience for multiple nonprofit organizations and has business owner experience as a communications contractor. Studying and applying communication skills was necessary for working with clients who are also seasoned communicators, active listeners, and exceptional scanners for non-verbal cues. Kelly's passions of communications and counseling have been two of her career goals over the last 20 years. She has three active children, who are the highlight of her life, and enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and running or rucking on nature walks. A favorite self-care day would be a workout, time outside, lead a group of warriors, and pizza & chocolate.