Daran Edmonds

I earned my Master of Social Work from UNC–Chapel Hill in 1999 and have more than 25 years of experience helping adults and families navigate emotional distress, relationship difficulties, and major life challenges. My background includes work as a psychotherapist and child welfare social worker.

I bring experience, steadiness, and genuine curiosity to my work. I am interested not only in what people are struggling with, but in how they came to experience themselves and their lives in the ways they do.

Through Headway, I provide insurance-based therapy to individual adults only. I do not see couples through insurance.

I am sensitive and reflective, but I also tend to get to the heart of the matter. My clients generally appreciate that I am direct while still being patient and compassionate.

I work from the ground up. We first explore the experiences and patterns that have shaped how you think, feel, and relate to others. We then work to understand the different parts of you that may be anxious, critical, protective, angry, or wounded. From there, we focus on helping you respond to yourself with greater flexibility and take meaningful action guided by your values.

My work draws primarily from psychodynamic therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I believe insight creates freedom, self-compassion creates flexibility, and action creates change.

In the first session, I will want to understand what brings you to therapy, what is happening in your life now, and what you hope will change. We will also begin exploring the experiences and patterns that may be contributing to your current difficulties.

You can expect a thoughtful conversation rather than a rigid interview. I will ask questions, offer initial observations when helpful, and work with you to identify a direction for therapy. You do not need to arrive with everything figured out; making sense of it is part of the work.