My name is Chatoné Strickland (pronounced Sha-tawny), and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 15 years of experience in the field of social work. I work with adults.
I have worked across a wide range of settings, including private practice, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, medical hospitals, nursing homes, residential treatment centers, and intensive outpatient programs. This breadth of experience has shaped how I understand people and change.
I believe that meaningful change rarely comes from forcing outcomes. Instead, progress begins with learning how to remain present with life as it is, while still holding orientation toward what it could be. The capacity to do both, while adhering to self-set values and priorities, is what I understand as alignment.
I believe people become aligned by attending to identity and the systems that support daily life.
In therapy with me, we focus on how change is embodied—how you become the person capable of sustaining the life you want, rather than simply working toward it in theory. This includes exploring how your self-concept, habits, internal dialogue, emotional regulation, communication, daily structures, and patterns of action either support or undermine the direction you want to move in.
I honor the difficulty of changing both behavior and thought patterns, while helping you hold yourself accountable with compassion. I offer a non-judgmental, steady space where you are invited to show up as you are.
My task in therapy is to help clients stay aligned with who they are becoming, even when external circumstances have not yet caught up. From this place, change tends to unfold more naturally, as the outer world begins to reflect the inner. As within, so without.
I work with adults who want to approach change with honesty, patience, and depth, and who are interested in building lives that feel aligned.
The first session with me is open and clarifying. We focus on understanding. Rather than rushing toward solutions, the emphasis is on making sense of the present moment, what's working, what's not and what's most important.
Some people come in with clear goals, and others don’t. Either way is welcome. The goal is to build clarity and coherence, so the work ahead has a grounded place to begin. “Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.”— Rumi
