LPC, 28 years of experience
New to Grow
Hi, I'm Trish Mullen, a licensed professional counselor with over 28 years of experience helping individuals navigate anxiety, stress, trauma, and life transitions by reconnecting with their sense of self. I graduated from VCU Health in 1997 with a Masters Degree in Rehab Counseling. I utilize the Integrative Approach to therapy, including EMDR, parts work, DBT, CBT and Motivational Interviewing to guide therapy in a way that is both effective and empowering. I bring over two decades of clinical experience, along with personal insight shaped by my own growth work. My education and clinical training prepared me to treat anxiety, trauma, family of origin work, and grief with a strong evidenced-based foundation. At the same time, I've done my own growth work to face challenges, different from yours, and to grow through them, recognizing how hard and courageous this process can be. My growth work allows me to show up with deep empathy, steady grounded presence, and a belief in your capacity for meaningful change. When I'm not working, I enjoy spending time with my family, our fur babies, playing golf, pickleball, seeing live music and rooting for my favorite teams.
Our first session is a chance to get to know each other in a thoughtful, supportive and intentional way. I'll ask questions about what's bringing you to therapy. I'll invite you to share with me what you think I need to know in the first meeting. I think of the first few sessions as getting the chapter titles of your story, and not diving too deep until you feel like you are comfortable and ready. It's important that I understand your needs and just as important that you have the space to determine if my training, style and approach to therapy is the right fit for you. Therapy is a collaborative process. The foundation we build in the first session helps us move at pace that feels safe, supportive and respectful of where you are. Healing doesn't just happen during our sessions. It continues in the small moments in-between sessions. I often describe therapy like physical therapy. After several surgeries, I worked closely with a physical therapist once or twice a week. Those sessions were essential, and the real progress came from doing the small practice exercises in between appointments. That's what helped me regain strength, flexibility, keep moving forward and rebuild my confidence in my body. I believe the same is true with psychotherapy.
One of my greatest strengths is creating a grounded, nonjudgemental space where clients feel seen, safe and supported. I bring over 28 years of clinical experience and training that specializes in treating panic attacks, anxiety, trauma, and grief in a phase oriented, trauma-informed manner that honors each clients' unique journey. My approach integrates evidenced based methods like EMDR, motivational interviewing, and parts work-tools that help clients move beyond coping and toward deeper healing and integration. Clients often tell me that they feel calmer, more connected to themselves, and better equipped to navigate life's challenges after working together. We explore the "why" behind your symptoms while offering practical skills to regulate emotions, reduce anxiety and panic, and build trust in your own inner resilience. Whether you are facing complex trauma or more recent life stressors, I'm committed to working with you, and walking beside you with compassion, care, clinical skill and deep respect for your process.
I work best with adults who are navigating anxiety, feeling stuck in patterns that are no longer effective, carrying the weight of past trauma and/or recent traumatic experiences, as well as life transitions. My clients range in age from college students to retired professionals. Many of my clients are high functioning on the outside while privately struggling on the inside with tension, difficulties regulating emotions, or a harsh inner critic. They may be feeling burned out, stuck, disconnected from themselves and are ready to better understand the patterns that make them feel like they are stuck on a "hamster wheel." Whether you're beginning to explore your past or are further along in your healing journey, I work well with both men and women who are curious, self-reflective, open to seeking insights and using practical tools. My goal is to help you move toward greater clarity, self-trust, and emotional freedom at a pace that feels safe, and sustainable, so that together we determine if my approach is "right" and effective for you. The goal of therapy is to help you feel calmer and safer in your body and your life. We work together to better understand what's activating your current symptoms and to gently shift the patterns that may keep you stuck, while teaching you new ways of navigating with stress and difficult emotions. Effective therapy can help reduce the intensity, frequency, and duration of panic attacks by developing tools to calm an overactive nervous system. These new tools help to heal the impact of trauma stored on the body and to rewire the brain in order to reconned with a sense of trust in yourself and the world around you. Treatment is intentionally paced, so that we work within your window of tolerance. Together, we focus on building safety, insights, and resilience in ways that support lasting healing, not just symptom relief. You don't have to do it all at once and you don't have to do it alone. You have a voice and a choice in every aspect of your healing journey.
For over 20 years, I've provided trauma-competent care called EMDR facilitated psychotherapy. Together we create a safe space that's grounded in a deep understanding of how experience affect the brain, body and sense of self. I utilize EMDR in a phase oriented approach that facilitates healing by targeting traumatic memories in a structured and neurologically supportive way.
I provide trauma competent care that is phase oriented-meaning we move through treatment in carefully paced phases-focusing on safety in the therapeutic relationship, stabilization, skill- building before reprocessing and exploring and integrating traumatic memories.
I integrate Motivational Interviewing (MI) and the stages of change (MET) to explore ambivalence, build readiness for change, and strengthen internal motivation while building therapeutic rapport. Motivational interviewing is a way of being with people-meeting you where "you are" and focusing on what you want to work on in treatment. It is strengths based and person centered.
My work with clients incorporates parts work (such as Internal Family Systems) honoring and dialoguing with different aspects of the self that may have developed to cope with pain, protect vulnerability and/or to manage overwhelm. One powerful tool, I sometimes use in parts work is a writing exercise that invites you to use both your dominant and non-dominant hand. The dominant hand represents your adult self that is wise, grounded and a part of you. Using your non-dominant hand allows a younger, more vulnerable part of you to express feelings, thoughts or needs. The goal isn't perfection-its curiosity, compassion and gentle connection with different emotional aspects of your inner experience.
In my practice, I use an integrative therapy approach-which means I tailor each session to you as a whole person, not just a diagnosis or set of symptoms. There's no one-size-fits-all model for healing in therapy, so I draw from a variety of proven techniques techniques to support your specific needs, goals, and life experiences. Depending on your needs, we may incorporate strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy, somatic practices, mindfulness, family of origin work, and skills associated with Dialectical Behavior Therapy.