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Theresa Fillingim, LPC - Alabama Therapist at Grow Therapy

Theresa Fillingim

Theresa Fillingim

(she/her)

LPC
19 years of experience
Holistic
Solution oriented
Empowering
Virtual

Hello, I identify as BIPOC being a Native American therapist. I have 32 years working and healing through inter-generational trauma. I’m a recovering addict/alcoholic of 32 years and identify as bisexual/she/her. I've been a certified addiction counselor and specialize in treating individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders since 2007. I'm a licensed professional counselor, LPC and have a Masters in Divinity in Pastoral Counseling which helps me help others with developing and strengthening a spiritual belief/foundation to grow from. I have a certification in Polarity Therapy to incorporate and integrate physical body work such as yoga, nutrition, and energy work. I'm married and have two daughters and a son who are my greatest teachers. My son has severe autism and is non-verbal. He has teaches me a lot about being sensitive to sensory experiences and to be tuned into my intuition to create and live in one's own world. I enjoy learning from others and their experiences with faith, culture and identity. My husband, children, and friends remind me of the importance of laughing often. I have two dogs who provide unconditional love. I love empowering others to create a healthier life and to live their dreams.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

In our first session, I like to ask questions to get to know you such as what would you like me to know about you, how I can help or support you, and any struggles or challenges you are dealing with. I like to send you a free attachment style quiz for you to take https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-style-quiz/. I will provide a free feeling wheel link online as well, https://feelingswheel.com/. I will send you 4 questions to begin asking yourself daily to help with emotion regulation. I believe we all have a choice each day to learn how to manage our feelings or let our feelings manage us. Learning how to self-regulate emotions can help with decreasing and preventing anxiety and depression symptoms. My job is to earn your trust and maintain it by teaching and modeling basic coping skills related to your issues and explain how they may benefit you. I may also provide a depression or anxiety symptom tracker to help you understand and advocate for your symptoms. The symptom trackers have a scale from 0-3, 0-none, 1 is mild, 2 is moderate and 3 is severe. Symptom trackers can be an excellent tool for you and I be objective about your progress.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

My biggest strengths come from 32 years of working in recovery with addiction and 22 years of education and various trainings. I am spiritual, empathetic, and intuitive. I worked as a special education teacher for ten years prior to counseling. I interned as a chaplain at St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta and love working and learning from others of different faith backgrounds. I've also received domestic violence training, family violence training, two years of DBT, anger management and I've worked many years with applied behavior analysis training through the May Center with my son. I've received various trainings on sex addiction, eating disorders, ADHD, Bipolar, and PTSD. I am an Associate Polarity Practitioner Program and have an Energy Principle's Practitioner Certificate. I am currently studying as a Registered Polarity Practitioner.

About Theresa Fillingim

Identifies as

Specializes in

Serves ages

Licensed in

Accepts

Appointments

Virtual

My treatment methods

Attachment-based

I find working with clients using attachment-based theory can help the client and myself understand any emotional unmet needs from childhood. I use an online link for clients to take a free quiz to determine what their attachment style is at https://www.attachmentproject.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4Y-sBhC6ARIsAGXF1g7VkjDom5A6nNOg8ku7zTohmtx-pVFpo2aKWINeGgpMf8nuAm9AM_kaArWKEALw_wcB I work with clients to help develop and nurture a secure attachment style regardless of what attachment style an individual has. Understanding the attachment style can help a person understand how emotional unmet needs continue to play out in intimate relationships and work relationships, friendships. I also work on helping individuals learn how to ground themselves by becoming emotionally regulated which also helps with developing a secure attachment style. Learning to recognize, accept and love all emotions takes time, especially if you grew up in a home where emotions were not accepted or validated. I also model how this looks by helping to reframe looking at emotions in a healthier way. Instead of judging emotions as positive and negative, try judging them as comfortable and uncomfortable instead. This will allow you to learn more about what your emotions are trying to teach you and help you understand yourself more. I also like to use metaphors for emotions by imagining your emotions being children you need to learn to manage. I suggest people download a free feeling wheel. https://feelingswheel.com/ to help identify feelings on a daily basis. There are approximately 150 feelings on this wheel. It is not an exhaustive list of all of our emotions, but it does lay a solid foundation for developing emotional regulation or the ability to feel confident with managing your emotions. Being able to self-regulate emotionally helps us develop a secure attachment style. If you are interested in learning more of how I can help you with emotion regulation and developing a secure attachment style, please make an appt to meet with me. I have four simple questions I use to help with using the feeling wheel. Working on emotion regulation also helps with reducing and preventing anxiety and depression symptoms. Additional treatment styles I like to incorporate are self-parenting techniques and mindfulness.

Somatic

Have been studying Polarity Therapy which is Energy Medicine since 2006. I received APP Associate Polarity Practitioner and am a Certified Energy Practitioner. I'm currently studying as a Registered Polarity Practitioner in training. Polarity therapy techniques are integrated to help bring support to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual balance to recovery process.