Darby Walton

I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor in Mississippi and a National Certified Counselor, with over a decade of clinical practice behind me. I've worked in residential treatment, PHP and IOP programs, community and outpatient settings, and now entirely by telehealth, which means I've sat with people at some of the hardest points of their lives and I don't get thrown by much.

Most of my clients come to me carrying trauma. Sometimes they know that's what it is. More often they came in for anxiety, depression, a relationship that keeps going the same direction, or drinking that's gotten harder to explain away, and the trauma turns up underneath it. I work with teens 13 and up and with adults, including survivors of intimate partner violence, people managing substance use alongside everything else, and clients with a history of disordered eating.

I'm also an affirming therapist for LGBTQIA+ clients and for people in non-monogamous, polyamorous, and kink communities. You won't need to educate me about your relationships or your identity before we can get to what you actually came in for.

I'm EMDR Level II trained, with additional training in Internal Family Systems and ego-state work, and I'm currently completing my LPC-S training in clinical supervision.

I work integratively, which in practice means I match the method to what you need instead of running everyone through the same protocol.

Almost always we start with stabilization. Trauma work done before your nervous system can tolerate it makes people worse, not better, so early sessions focus on regulation, skills, and getting your day-to-day steadier. That might look like DBT skills, somatic and mindfulness practice, or straightforward CBT work on what's keeping you stuck. When you're ready, we move into processing with EMDR or parts work.

I'm direct, and I'll tell you what I'm seeing rather than waiting for you to arrive at it. I'll also tell you what we're doing and why at every stage, and I want to hear it when something isn't working. You set the pace. Nothing gets opened up before you decide you're ready for it.

The first session is mostly me getting to know you and you getting a feel for whether I'm someone you can work with. I'll ask what brought you in now, what you've already tried, and what you want to be different. If there's history you're not ready to talk about yet, you can say so, and we'll move on.

You will not be asked to tell me your whole trauma history in the first hour. That's a common fear and a reasonable one, and it isn't how I work.

By the end we'll have a rough sense of where to start and what the first few sessions will focus on. If I'm not the right fit for what you need, I'll say that too, and help you figure out where to go instead.