Therapists for college students near Duke University

Perhaps you’ve been keeping your head above water in your day-to-day life, but find yourself worrying a lot or feeling stuck in a “funk." Maybe you’ve been carrying something heavy for long enough, and are finally ready to talk through it in a supportive space. Or maybe you simply want to feel heard and understood as you navigate a tough transition in your life; you just need someone to be there with you while you do it. While anxiety and trauma may leave us feeling depleted, I believe that counseling can help us find our most authentic and resilient selves through these experiences. My aims are to listen with non-judgment, to help you identify the goals and steps toward them that feel right for you, and to offer support, tools, and even a gentle nudge when you need it. We will co-create a space that feels safe enough to talk about the hard stuff in life, while also shining plenty of light on what helps you feel hopeful and positive. The decision to start counseling is not an easy one, and I know feeling a good connection with your counselor matters. I am passionate about building genuine and effective relationships with my clients and find that empathy, authenticity, and even humor are helpful tools in doing so. Please feel free to reach out about setting up a free phone consultation. I offer a combination of in-person and telehealth sessions based on the needs, preferences, and health status of both myself and my clients. Rates listed below are cash pay rates as of May 2022; out-of-pocket expenses to clients using insurance will vary based on their specific insurance plans, so please confirm the coverage of your specific plan prior to initiating services.

Everyone is responsible for protecting and nurturing their mental health. Navigating through difficult life experiences can manifest stress, unhappiness, anxiety, anger, etc. Sometimes, we develop harmful ways to cope with these life experiences such as isolating ourselves, lashing out at others, abusing substances, among other things. It can be difficult to take the first step and reach out for therapy/counseling. However, taking that first step means that you're prepared to figure out how you can improve your circumstance and move forward. It's my mission to offer you support through your process of achieving mental wellness!

Do you feel like you’re in a constant race to attain goals and standards, but it leaves you stressed, burnt out and feeling inadequate? Do you struggle feeling valuable apart from what you produce or do for others? Are negative beliefs about yourself interfering in your relationships? I help college aged folks and young adults develop a healthy sense of identity and worth and navigate the world with more mental flexibility. I am here to help you reframe negative beliefs, cultivate healthier thought patterns and work through unresolved relational pain to manage your life experiences well.

Going to a counselor can be intimidating or nerve wracking. Will they accept me? What if I don't know what exactly I want to talk about in therapy? Or do I really want to open up about some of these things? All of these feelings are really normal when beginning counseling and I've had experience working with kids, teenagers, young adults, and adults to begin the journey of processing whatever they would like to work on in therapy. I offer collaborative, supportive, and honest therapy to provide my clients with therapy that helps them identify and work towards the changes they want to see in their lives. I would say my most successful clients have been clients who have been experiencing feelings of anxiety and processing past trauma. I have training in EMDR therapy to help assist with processing past trauma and I work from a theoretical framework of attachment theory, which emphasizes how past relationships impact current relationships. I also provide couples counseling as I have training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy and Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy. I am currently accepting new clients and I'd love to talk over phone or email to see if I might be a good fit for you!

During any stage of life we are faced with challenges of many kinds. And these trials can keep anyone in the dark, not realizing that hope can be found. If you're someone who is trying to figure out who you are in the world, trying to find their way, or who just needs a solid connection with a partner; if you recognize a problem and a longing for change or struggling with overwhelming thoughts and emotions that keep you pushed away, leaving you in the dark, then you’re not alone and I’m here to help. ​ I believe creating a strong connection is a major step towards healing. My approach to creating a therapeutic bond is person-centered and strength-based. As a family systems therapist, I long to understand how our present growth challenges are shaped by our history of connections. With that new awareness, we can pave the way for positive changes in healing. ​ The key to any therapeutic process is a successful connection within the therapist/client relationship. It is important for the journey to have a therapist who can provide a safe space for your story to be heard and the skills to harness inner strength. If you feel like you’re struggling recently, loosing power or control over your life in ways you could not possibly imagine or realize, then we encourage you to reach out here at Alta Terra, where we can provide an honest safe space for you to be accepted, to find empowerment, encouragement, and healing as you journey to your higher ground (your greatest potential), for a higher ground is within your reach, no matter what season of life you’re in. It would be a joy to speak with you and to explore this journey together if I may be the right fit. ​

Melissa Sisco, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with 18 years of clinical experience. She is best known for her expertise in trauma recovery, aggression management, healthy sexuality, and systems of identity. She has a special interest in providing services for first responders and people with exposure to systems of aggression (sexual oppression, domestic violence, war, civil unrest) as well as communities of control (gangs, cults, unhealthy families). Clinically, Dr. Sisco operates primarily from a cognitive behavioral framework; however, she may shift strategies if an alternate modality is identified by clinical trials as the more effective treatment corresponding to a given diagnosis. Primary skillsets include: Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Mindfulness-based Interventions, Guided Self-Hypnosis Training, Systematic Desensitization Therapy, Harm Reduction, and Brief Strategic Family Systems Therapy (BSFT), Insight-Oriented Therapy, and Reality Therapy. She has also engaged in mentorship/coaching, positive psychology, play therapy, and animal assisted therapeutic services. When working with Dr. Sisco, you will always be greeted with a sincere warmth and concern for your well-being. She “shoots from the hip” in a nonjudgmental way to help embrace personal truths and build the glory after the challenge. You will also notice that she can switch gears to hear you in the moment when a quiet presence is needed and help guide you towards answers when the time is right to address the problems. She will honor and respect your time schedule and your definition of clinical goals. She will accept you as you are and help you see the wonder in yourself while learning to navigate the struggles that we all face. Dr. Sisco’s experience and training has led her to four fundamental beliefs about all individuals: (1) We all have basic human drives, private desires, insecurities, ascribed identity, and an ongoing personal narrative that drive our interaction with the world. (2) Seemingly unimportant decisions lead to habits which cascade into life-changing results. (3) We all experience jilting traumas that alter us in some fashion. (4) We can all be well, whole people who love, are loved, and add value to the world. Specialties Dr. Sisco provides individual, couples, family, and group therapy, as well as clinical supervision. Throughout her career, she has worked with a variety of clinical populations, such as: first responders, healthcare workers, those in forensic settings, trauma survivors, sexual and violent offenders, those in substance abuse recovery, individuals experiencing severe mental illness, adults and children on the Autism Spectrum, adults and children diagnosed with Intellectual Developmental Disorders (IDD), parents of troubled children and teens, refugees, military Veterans, individuals with gang involvement, survivors of war crimes, and marginalized communities. Dr. Sisco’s skillset includes: assessment, report writing, case management, therapeutic sessions, administration, supervision, program development and evaluation, empirical standardization and manual development and implementation, crisis response, and community repair. She specializes in treating Mood Disorders (Depressive Disorders, Bipolar Disorder), Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI), trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anxiety Disorders, Panic Disorder and Specific Phobias, anger and aggression, relationship problems, issues related to sexuality, gender transition and identity, addictions, stress and adjustment, personality disorders, weight loss, and smoking cessation, evaluation for bariatric surgery, and transplant preparation. Education and Training Dr. Sisco graduated in 2011 with a joint PhD in Clinical Psychology and Psychology, Policy, and Law with a minor specialty in Program Evaluation and Research Methodology from the University of Arizona. During this time, she participated in teaching, grant writing, providing research and statistical support, engaging in case review of civil and criminal cases regarding undue influence, working in clinical settings and supervising others in clinical settings. In addition, she aided in designing and implementing the first restorative justice program in the US, addressing date rapes on campus with Dr. Mary P. Koss of the R.E.S.T.O.R.E. project. She designed modified treatment curriculums for special populations of sex offenders (brain injured and developmentally delayed as well as female sex offenders) that were implemented in the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2013. She was also an integral part of building one of the first therapeutic mentorship programs designed to service foster-care youth with behavioral challenges with Dr. Julie Feldman. She worked most closely with her major advisor, Dr. Judith Becker, best known for her work on the Jeffrey Dahmer and Green River Killer cases. In her spare time, Dr. Sisco delighted in rehabilitating aggressive animals, predominantly horses and dogs, to provide hope for their rehoming. Dr. Sisco was selected for predoctoral internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, Trauma-Specific Track. During her internship, she specialized in trauma-response care in emergency medical settings, outreach to high-risk, marginalized urban youth and their families during and after violence exposure, and identifying susceptibility to recruitment in terroristic and gang-related organizations due to community trauma. During her off time, she began training as a boxer and fell back into her roots of youth mentorship due to the engagement she experienced while training. She built a mentorship program for youth in crisis, BoutIt Mentorship program, specifically designed and implemented for youth housed in a crisis shelter. Participants in the program learned how to cope effectively with intensive trauma, aggression, and mental health diagnoses. In her work as a clinical consultant, Dr. Sisco provided education to the International Court of Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the psychology of serial sexual assault during wartime. Dr. Sisco served as a professor at Roosevelt University for many years, as well as a forensic adjunct at the Chicago Professional School of Psychology. It was at this point that she incorporated Animal Assisted Therapy into her services; she delighted in seeing her clients and students find peace and release from being in the presence of her therapy dog. In 2017, Dr. Sisco returned to North Carolina, where she worked as a senior psychologist at Broughton State Hospital in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. While there, she worked with people who suffered with severe, debilitating mental illness and aided in a state shift to positive psychology and universal acknowledgements of strengths as opposed to illness. Dr. Sisco has published predominantly regarding systems of intimacy and violence. She has worked with many different populations including: persons struggling with addictions, veterans, inmates, international tribunals of war, psychiatric inpatients, families with marital and/or parenting concerns, sexual and domestic violence aggressors and victims, at risk youth, gangs, homeless, refugees, exonerees from capital cases, youth on the autism spectrum, people with severely and profound developmental delay, people with serious mental illness, people classified as serious violent predators, First Responders, police de-escalation teams, survivors of homicide/suicide of a loved one, and, of course, students and community members struggling with daily stressors. Additional Trainings Dr. Sisco has extensive training in Applied Behavioral Analysis, Multicultural Sensitivity, and Crisis Intervention Training. She is also well-versed in a variety of neuropsychological assessment batteries and engages in report writing for forensic and clinical purposes. Professional Membership American Psychological Association North Carolina Psychological Association National Register of Health Service Psychologists

College can be exciting, overwhelming, and everything in between—and you don’t have to figure it all out alone. As someone who’s been through the college journey myself, I understand the pressure to succeed, the weight of family expectations, and the struggle to balance mental health with everything else life throws at you. I’m here to support students who are feeling stuck, anxious, burnt out, or unsure of who they are or where they’re headed. With a background in health systems, early childhood development, and clinical training across diverse settings, I offer a space where you can be yourself—no judgment, no pressure. Whether you're processing past experiences, adjusting to a new environment, or just need someone to talk to, I’ll meet you with empathy, tools that work, and a deep respect for your lived experience. Let’s make space for you.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Starting therapy or returning to therapy can feel difficult or uncomfortable. My aim is to foster an environment of safety, openness, and authenticity to allow for greater progress towards a fulfilling, happy life. I offer individuals the tools to empower them to achieve goals and make meaningful decisions in their lives. You are the expert in your own life and I’m here as a support through your journey. I view therapy as a place to be curious and explore new ideas, exercises, or coping strategies in a nonjudgmental environment. I utilize a variety of clinical approaches to address individual’s needs. I have five years of experience working with those who have experienced various trauma in their lives. I enjoy working with adults and older adolescences (16+). My areas of expertise include working with individuals who have experienced domestic or sexual violence, interpersonal relationship challenges, and complex trauma. Please feel free to reach out to discuss therapy. I am here to listen and support.

I approach the therapeutic process with the belief that therapy is simply a human helping a human. By offering an objective and judgement free setting, my hope is to provide a space that offers freedom to share and feel without hesitation. I am a masters-level clinician; I earned a master of science degree in counseling and psychology from Troy University in 2016. I'm a client centered counselor with a passion to help empower individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and tools to work through their presenting problems. I aim to build a therapeutic alliance with my clients and create a safe, judgment-free atmosphere with the hope that they are able to openly explore their thoughts and feelings. I believe in the power of knowledge and it's ability to impact healing and frequently apply psychoeducation into treatment. I'm a strength-based therapist and my overall theoretical orientation is integrative; it commonly includes utilization of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as well as behavioral and solution-focused techniques. I enjoy working with individuals who suffer from anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, relationship issues, and various life challenges. I'm happy to currently serve individuals 18+. I'm licensed in NC and SC. I'm also an out-of-state provider for the state of Florida allowing the option for telehealth for clients located in Florida at the time of service. Please view this site for additional information: https://flhealthsource.gov/telehealth/

Hey there! I provide virtual therapy for adults navigating OCD, ADHD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms - many of whom are unpacking intimacy, identity, and religious trauma. My approach is affirming, and grounded in empowerment. I'm LGBTQ+ friendly and deeply anti-judgment. I meet you where you are, not where you think you should be. Together, we challenge shame and rigid beliefs while building insight, autonomy, and self trust so life can feel more authentic and connected. Whether you are seeking relief from emotional distress, healing from past experiences, or finding a deeper connection with your authentic self, I am dedicated to come alongside you on your journey toward growth and well-being. Sessions are collaborative, gentle, and focused on both symptom relief and deeper insight. Clients often describe our work as calming, clarifying, and real. My goal is to offer a therapeutic space where you feel safe to show up fully, without judgment, and explore what healing looks like for you. Therapy isn’t about 'fixing' you. It’s about supporting the version of you that’s already trying to grow.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

We specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of complex mental health conditions in patients aged 6 and up, with a focus on adjustment disorders, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, mood disorders, OCD, post-partum depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, substance use disorders, other disruptive behavioral disorders. Our approach to psychiatry is deeply rooted in a personalized, patient-centered philosophy that emphasizes the importance of understanding each patient’s unique circumstances and collaborating closely with them to develop effective, individualized treatment plans. We believe in tailoring treatment plans to each individual's unique needs, incorporating evidence-based practices and the latest research advancements to help patients achieve long-term wellness and improve their quality of life.

Hello, my name is Sierra! I’m a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate and a Licensed Music Therapist in Boone, NC. I’m glad you’ve decided to venture here today. Chances are, you are here because you are seeking to gain some insight and support. This first step already shows your willingness to grow, resourcefulness as a person, and potential for building resilience. It’s important that you choose a clinician who is a good fit for your goals, personal values, and individual comfort level so that you can receive the most out of this experience. Here’s what I can offer: a warm disposition, a safe environment, individualized counseling approaches from an accredited counseling program, and a collaborative approach to treatment. It’s important to me that as a client, you have the choice to feel empowered and encouraged in collaborating on a treatment plan for your desired goal areas. I currently have availability for new clients for both in-person sessions in Boone, NC and telehealth sessions outside of Boone for residents of North Carolina.

Today more than ever people are experiencing depression, anxiety, isolation, high levels of stress, and a profound heaviness as they try to juggle unrealistic expectations of their relationships, career, and life. I am passionate about ending this cycle by giving my clients the opportunity to heal and grow. I work to provide a space where my clients can work through their wounds and obstacles toward a life and identity that permeates worthiness and embodies strength and empowerment. As a therapist, I walk alongside my clients as they courageously embark on their healing journey. I help them identify roadblocks that are preventing them from fully living the life they wish to live and achieving their goals. I have worked in the mental health field for over 10 years.I have worked with teens, adults, and parents. My clinical framework is grounded in attachment theory and in understanding the impact that relationships and experiences have on how we view ourselves and the world. I am trained in various clinical modalities and use the modalities that best meet my client's needs. I focus on creating an environment that inspires hope and feels collaborative and welcoming. In my practice, I focus on helping individuals experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, burn out, substance abuse, grief, relationship dynamic issues, parenting issues, self-esteem issues, and life transitions. My work also includes parent coaching and life coaching.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Welcome! I am a clinical psychologist who believes in building relationships with my clients while using evidence-based practices to help each client achieve the changes that he or she is seeking to make. I am passionate about the "whole" person, taking a comprehensive, collaborative approach with services. I approach treatment and assessment from a strengths-based perspective and integrate a variety of psychological orientations. I focus on resiliency and helping my clients to recognize their unique strengths in order to learn and grow from their experiences and difficulties.

BASE is a specialist psychology practice in Charlotte, North Carolina offering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), classes, and consultation for professionals. We are passionate about excellence in treatment, utilizing evidence-based interventions to help clients thrive.

You are here on purpose! Through an integrative approach infused with mindfulness practices, you can learn to manage anxiety, trauma, depression, health & wellness, and more. Together we can tackle the challenges and uncertainties in a safe and judgement free space. Visit my website for more support! TELEHEALTH/VIRTUAL services only. "It's your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you." -Rumi

We are a North Carolina based virtual practice that centers the collective healing of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) and of LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) folks.​ We specialize in working with those ​HEALING Trauma, Depression, Anxiety and Relationship Issues and also work with Stress, Self-Esteem, and Life Transitions. Many of the folks we work with experience intense emotions, have issues in relationships, want to break generational traumas, and are looking for culturally responsive care. We offer compassion in a safe space for healing with practical tools to apply day by day. We look forward to connecting with you on your HEALING journey.