Shay Alderman

I look forward to collaborating with you to understand what you are feeling and how you might bring things into a more comfortable balance. I have worked in community mental health and social services for more than 20 years, in various interdisciplinary medical and outpatient settings, helping people adjust to life events, cope with chronic health problems and serious mental health challenges, and navigate life's constant changes. I have a special interest and expertise working with anxiety disorders, helping people who have experienced trauma or chronic illness and people with psychosis and thought disorders.

I participate in ongoing professional education and training to support and expand my skills and knowledge. In the past couple years, I have been focusing on body-based and mindfulness approaches, including becoming a certified provider of the Safe and Sound Protocol to regulate nervous system activation. In my journey to become a counselor, I earned a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Marital and Family Therapy and completed an AATA (American Art Therapy Association) approved graduate program in Art Therapy at Notre Dame de Namur University in December 2003 following a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1996 with continued study in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

My overall approach is humanistic, which means I value every person's uniqueness and natural potential for positive growth and transformation. Depending upon your unique needs, I combine this perspective with various other theoretical orientations and evidence-based strategies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, art therapy, somatic, mindfulness, dialectical, and trauma-informed insight-oriented approaches.

My intention is to create a safe, compassionate, nonjudgmental environment to explore what is happening, and to work together to find ways to help you move through the world with more ease, confidence and clarity, no matter what is going on. My goal is for you to feel understood and supported, and to find steps to take together toward a sense of ease.