Theresa Fillingim profile image

Theresa Fillingim

Theresa Fillingim

(she/her)

LPC
19 years of experience
Solution oriented
Holistic
Empowering
Virtual

Hello, I identify as BIPOC being a Native American therapist, M’kmaq and Abenaki ancestry and have spent 30 years working and healing through inter-generational trauma. I’m a recovering addict/alcoholic of 31 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've been a professional counselor for 18 years. I have two daughters and a son who are my greatest teachers. My son has severe autism and has taught me a lot about being able to create and live from one's own world. I enjoy learning from others and their experiences with faith, culture and identity. My two daughters 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. I will also provide a free feeling wheel link online as well. 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 manager our feelings or let our feelings manage us. Learning how to self-regulate emotions can help with decreasing and preventing anxiety and depression symptoms. I like to begin our first session by earning your trust and maintain it with each session by teaching and modeling basic coping skills related to whatever your issues are and explain how they can be beneficial and how they have helped others. I may also provide a depression or anxiety symptom tracker to help educate and understand your particular symptoms if you have them. The symptom trackers have a scale from 0-3, 0-none, 1 is mild, 2 is moderate and 3 is severe. Using symptom trackers to help you decrease and prevent symptoms is an excellent tool to measure if my helping you is working or not.

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

My biggest strengths come from 22 years of education and various trainings. 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. I've also received domestic violence training, family violence training and worked a lot with applied behavior analysis extensively with my son. I've received various trainings with sex addiction, eating disorders, ADHD, Bipolar, and PTSD. I have also completed certificate for an Associate Polarity Practitioner Program.

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.