Emily believes in holistic care and incorporating the body into the therapeutic process. She is passionate about meeting clients where they are and providing a space where clients feel seen, heard, and safe to lean into the healing journey. Emily serves adults and adolescents experiencing trauma/PTSD/CPTSD, perfectionism, anxiety, depression, and chronic stress. She uses cognitive and somatic approaches with psychodynamic theory and polyvagal theory, as well as parts work and EMDR processing. Emily strives to help clients gain insight, self-compassion, empowerment, authenticity, and actionable tools to move toward change and fulfillment.

As an Associate Professional Counselor, Emily is practicing under the direction of Sarah Howell Valeriay, LPC (GA# LPC010857) and supervision of Amy Robbins, LPC, CPCS (GA# LPC003834). Amy Robbins can be reached at 706-406-3404. In Emily’s free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and dog, reading, going to concerts, and lifting weights.

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WHAT IS POLYVAGAL THEORY?

Polyvagal theory was developed by neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Porges and tells us our nervous system will influence not just the classic fight, flight, and freeze responses, but our ability to engage socially with others, feel safe, and return to a balanced state after experiencing threats or triggers. What does this mean for mental health? Chronic stress, sleep deprivation, and traumatic experiences all narrow our “window of tolerance” for distress, leading us to feel chronically on edge, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, numb, or afraid of failure or making mistakes. This may give rise to perfectionism, doom scrolling, trying to please everyone around us while ignoring our own needs, disordered eating, self-harm, or other self-sabotaging behaviors.

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But there is hope! The body and mind retain stress and trauma we’ve experienced, but we can establish safety, recalibrate the nervous system, and expand our “window of tolerance” through gentle practices. We can go from survival mode to living and thriving; doing this work with a counselor means we are not alone on the journey.