Emily Efird
I am an Atlanta native with 6 years of therapy experience helping individuals navigate life's most difficult transitions. I specialize in working with teenagers and young adults who feel overwhelmed with anxiety, emotional volatility, or thoughts of hopelessness.
I specialize in working with teenagers and young adults who feel overwhelmed with anxiety, emotional volatility, or thoughts of hopelessness.
My goal is to provide a supportive, relaxed, and non-judgmental space where we can work together to help build a life that feels meaningful and balanced.
First session
During our first session, my priority is making you feel heard and comfortable. We will spend time getting to know each other and discussing what brought you to therapy and what you hope to gain from the experience. This is a collaborative space, so I'll share my approaches with you and you are free to take what feels good and leave what doesn't.
Strengths
My greatest strength lies with blending deep empathy with evidence-based practices. With extensive experience in CBT and DBT, I am able to listen without judgement while helping you build a practical toolkit for how to achieve emotional regulation and cognitive processing skills. I enjoy working with clients as a partnership, ensuring you never have to navigate hard moments alone.
Ideal clients
My dream clients are those who are motivated to make positive, lasting changes. To me, this means being willing to do the work outside of session, giving things a try even if you feel like they won't work, and being willing to be an active participant in treatment by providing me with feedback to make the experience beneficial. Young adults going through life changes, needing support with adjusting to negative experiences, and those with childhood wounds they are looking to heal are all within my specialty.
Treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
In our sessions, I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help you identify the underlying thought patterns that influence your emotions and behaviors. By gaining awareness of these cycles, we work together to develop practical tools that empower you to challenge unhelpful beliefs and create a lasting positive change in your life.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
I utilize DBT to help you find the balance between accepting yourself as you are while also acknowledging the need for change. By focusing the "dialectics", (two opposing things can be true at the same time), we work to reduce emotional volatility and build a life that feels stable and meaningful.
Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
I utilize the CAMS framework to ensure that we are working as true partners in your safety and well-being. Unlike traditional models that can feel clinical or detached, CAMS is a side-by-side approach where we collaboratively identify the drivers to your distress and suicidal thinking and develop practical, goal-oriented plans to address them directly.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
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Licensed in
- GeorgiaLicense LPC013818