Caroline Touma

Before starting my private practice, I worked in community mental health providing counseling services to clients of all ages and from all walks of life. I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. I have lived in Austin for over a decade and have developed a deep appreciation for the city and the people who live here.

My approach is shaped by my interests in ecology, philosophy, literature, music, meditation, and movement, as well as by a longstanding interest in community, relationships, and the ways people make meaning of their lives.

My orientation is primarily psychodynamic. This means that, rather than focusing only on symptoms, we also pay attention to how earlier experiences, relationships, and parts of ourselves that are harder to see or put into words continue to shape how we feel and relate to others now.

I am drawn to this kind of therapy because I am interested in the parts of human experience that do not always fit neatly into diagnoses: contradiction, ambivalence, relationships, identity, meaning, and the ways our histories continue to live in the present. I value therapy as a place to understand those complexities rather than reduce them to a diagnosis or quick explanation.

If we decide to move forward, the first session gives us more time to slow down and begin getting a fuller picture of what has been happening in your life, what feels most important right now, and what you would like to understand or change.