Natalie Lenard

I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with more than 12 years of experience in counseling and mental health. I earned my Master's degree in Counselor Education from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, with a focus on both School and Community Mental Health Counseling. Throughout my career, I've worked in domestic violence, substance abuse, criminal justice, parental alienation, and high-conflict divorce.

I work with children, adolescents, adults, and families experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, academic difficulties, dissociative disorders, and family and relationship concerns. I'm especially passionate about helping minority and at-risk youth. My areas of focus include coping skills, life transitions, borderline personality disorder (BPD), workplace stress, domestic violence, sexual abuse recovery, LGBTQIA+ concerns, ADHD, and anger management.

At the risk of sounding cliché, my clients both inspire and motivate me, something I discovered while working in domestic violence. People go through so many things that are tough and overwhelming, and my clients kept going. They showed up every day. Sometimes showing up meant getting out of bed that day. Sometimes it meant pressing on when their emotional well was completely dry. And sometimes it simply meant saying things were not okay. If my clients can show up, the least I can do is show up with them.

I'm also inspired by knowledge and music. I love to learn new things and bring them into my work and personal life. I enjoy attending counseling conferences, watching movies, and listening to music with meaningful lyrics. Anything that teaches me something new or helps to express thoughts and feelings that can be difficult to put into words brings me joy.

In my personal life, I enjoy hobbies such as reading, coloring, RPG video games, and spending time with my family.

Because each client is different, I tailor my treatment to their unique needs and goals. I incorporate trauma-informed approaches, relational methods, attachment theories, humanistic perspectives, play and experiential therapies, family systems, emotionally focused therapy (EFT), and mindfulness-based techniques.

My work in domestic violence, substance abuse, criminal justice, and high-conflict divorce has taught me that long-term healing comes from working to address the root causes of our struggles, and personal growth is a big part of that. My goal is to help you look deep within, find the person you are meant to be, and use those strengths to overcome difficulties yourself. Together, we'll work to find the YOU that is the author of your story.

The biggest thing I want clients to know is that while counseling is deep emotional work, it doesn't have to be intense and serious all the time. Moments of quiet, lightness, humor, laughter, and fun can be just as healing and meaningful as some of our deeper work. As a result, you'll often find me incorporating music, games, books, movies, creative techniques, and your personal hobbies and interests into our sessions.

My goal for the first few sessions is to build rapport and emotional safety. You'll be working through difficult, deeply personal situations, feelings, and experiences with an absolute stranger, and it's hard to be completely vulnerable and feel emotionally safe with someone you don't know. I believe taking the step to start therapy is incredibly brave, and I want to do what I can to foster that sense of safety.

Because of this, we don't always start with the deep work. We start by getting to know each other, talking about what brings you in and what you hope to get out of therapy, so you feel safe being vulnerable. I've found that, long-term, this approach allows clients to begin working on deeper issues and heal more quickly than if we dove right in. I look forward to helping you achieve your goals.