Stephanie Crume

Most people who reach out to me have been managing on their own for a while and have arrived at the point where managing is not the same as being okay. I'm Stephanie Crume, a Licensed Professional Counselor in Oklahoma, and I have worked in mental health for twelve years. What I bring to it is empathy, emotional intelligence, and a genuinely flexible approach, which mostly means I do not have one method that everyone gets routed through. You should also know that I use humor. Not to skate past anything that matters, but because most people arrive carrying this far too carefully, and a room where you are allowed to laugh at some of it is a room where you can finally say the rest. I also care a great deal about access. Therapy should not be reserved for people who already know how to navigate the system, who have the right words for what is wrong, or who can afford to pay for it out of pocket. If you are reading this and you are not sure whether therapy is for you, it probably is.

I meet people where they are and build the approach around what they are actually dealing with, rather than starting from a model and fitting you into it. The foundation is client-centered and humanistic, which in practice means I trust that you are the authority on your own experience and I am not going to talk over you about it. From there it depends on what you need. When the work calls for something practical, I use cognitive behavioral and solution-focused approaches to get at the thoughts and patterns keeping you stuck and to build something you can actually do. When your body has gotten ahead of your thinking, mindfulness-based work helps you find the floor again. And when the question underneath is a larger one, about meaning, or about patterns that started long before you had any say in them, psychodynamic and existential work make room for that. Most people need some combination, and which combination is a conversation rather than something I decide before meeting you.

Our first session is mostly about getting to know each other and working out where to start. We will talk about what brought you in, what has been hardest lately, and what you would like to be different, and together we will set a few attainable goals so we both know what we are working toward. You do not need to arrive with those already formed. Most people do not. I want the room to feel safe, because nothing else works without that part. And I will be straightforward with you about one thing up front: therapy is active. I will bring everything I have, every tool and all of my attention, and the changes themselves happen out in your life rather than in this room, which means we are doing this together rather than me doing it to you. That is not a disclaimer. It is the reason it works when it works.