Hello Better Help community! My name is Christina and I have been in the mental health field since 2012, providing outpatient therapy since 2014. I am fully licensed in North Carolina as a Clinical Social Worker. Prior to that I was practicing in Michigan, where I am originally from. I received my Masters degree from University of Southern California. My passion is to help empower people by assisting them in the process of overcoming personal barriers and discovering their own strengths so they can live a fulfilling and healthy life. I have experience working with a variety of populations affected by various mental health and interpersonal challenges. I take an eclectic approach which is trauma-informed and strengths-based. I have worked with individuals, couples, families and groups. I facilitated several weekly groups which were psychoeducational in nature including trauma, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and co-occurring substance use and mental health. I have extensive experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and incorporate many elements from Dialectal Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. My goals are to assist people in developing skills to manage symptoms more effectively while shifting their focus to accentuate their strengths to help them achieve life goals. I have worked in a variety of settings including community mental health, mental health clinics, primary care settings, work in the community, as well as work with the court system on guardianship cases. Many of my clients have a history of trauma which continues to negatively affect their sense of self-worth, their feelings of safety/security with others, and their outlook of their future. My therapeutic style often incorporates a trauma-informed perspective because past trauma often continues to negatively affect individual attachments later in life. I feel so fortunate that we live in a world where technology allows us the opportunity to connect with individuals that may have been outside our reach before. I strive to provide the support and empathy to help empower others to make difficult but positive changes in their lives. You have already taken the first steps toward making changes in your life and I will be here to walk side-by-side with you on your personal journey.