Tammie Makely

Hello! It's very nice to meet you. I hold a master's degree in marriage and family therapy and am a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist. I have advanced training in Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and sex therapy, including work with compulsive sexual behavior, betrayal trauma, and relational rupture. I specialize in helping individuals, couples, and families who feel stuck in painful cycles shaped by shame, secrecy, conflict, trauma, anxiety, depression, or chronic disconnection. I don't believe people are broken. I believe patterns make sense once we understand where they came from. My role isn't to fix you -- it's to work alongside you to quiet the noise, get curious about what's underneath, and help you reconnect with yourself and the people who matter most to YOU.

My style is collaborative, warm, and direct. I'm comfortable talking about the things most people avoid, and I create a space built around honest, complexity, and real change. Therapy with me a trauma-informed, experiential, and practical -- we will notice patterns together in real time and experiment with new ways for you to relate to your own life. You don't have to perform in the time you spend with me. You get to show up exactly as you are -- and we'll figure out the next right step together.

I think about therapy like tuning a radio dial. Most people don't come in because they're broken -- they come to me because their internal signal is full of static. Old experiences, trauma, shame, conflict, stress, or survival strategies all can work to make it hard to hear what you actually feel, need, or want in your relationships. My work is about slowing things down and gently helping you adjust that radio dial -- together.

We pay attention to the patterns that keep repeating, the reactions that feel automatic, and the parts of you that learned to cope a long time ago. Instead of forcing change, we get curious together about what those parts are trying to protect -- and help create new options that fit who you are now. I use a trauma-informed, experiential style of therapy, which means we don't just talk about your life -- we notice what's happening in real time, in your body, through your emotions, and within your relationships. We work with both insight and practice: understanding the signal and experimenting with new ways of responding when the volume spikes or your internal channel starts to drift.

You are in the driver's seat and I'm not here to tune you to my frequency -- I'm here to help you hear your own more clearly. Therapy with me is collaborative, honest, and human. Some sessions are steady and reflective; others are emotional, clarifying, or even unexpectedly light. Wherever your dial is that day, we work with it. With me, the goal will never be perfection. Who wants that? Not me! The goal in working with me is clarity, connection, and a signal you can finally trust. Let's learn to trust in you -- together.

Your first session is about helping you feel understood and starting to make sense of what's been looping in your life -- without pressure to have perfect words or a tidy story. We will talk about what brought you in, patterns you're noticing in your relationships or inner world, and what YOU want to be different in your life. I'll ask thoughtful questions, reflect what I'm hearing, and help tune the static into something clearer and more workable -- for YOU. I bring humor and warmth into the room -- not to minimize pain, but to make hard conversations feel more human. Therapy can be serious and connective at the same time. We might laugh, slow things down when emotions run high, and move at a pace all your own.

You can expect:

1) focused, collaborative conversations,

2) questions about relationships and emotional patterns,

3) clarity about goals and next steps,

4) transparency about my approach, and

5) space to ask anything -- let's learn together.

Remember: I am not here to fix you!

I am here to help you understand what shaped your patterns -- and choose what comes next. Most clients leave their first session with me feeling lighter, clearer, and less alone -- not because everything is solved, but because their signal finally starts to come through at a whole new frequency.