LMHC, 9 years of experience
New to Grow
Hi there! I'm Kasie, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor based in Altamonte Springs, Florida. I earned my master’s degree from the University of Central Florida in 2017, have been licensed as an LMHC since 2020, and became a certified Qualified Supervisor in 2024. With nearly a decade of experience, I work primarily with adults, both individually and in couples work, helping clients navigate challenges like grief and loss, depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma, life transitions, LGBTQAI+ issues, and self-esteem concerns. My approach is rooted in authenticity and realness. I focus on incremental, practical steps that create meaningful change, supporting clients in building the skills, insight, and resilience they need to live more fulfilling lives. My goal is to provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients feel heard, supported, and empowered to grow at their own pace.
When working with me, you can expect a collaborative, yet structured, approach. In our first sessions, we’ll explore what brings you to therapy, review your past and present experiences, identify your current stressors and priorities, and create a measurable treatment plan to guide our work. This roadmap keeps us focused while leaving room for reflection and flexibility as your needs evolve. Progress looks different for everyone, and I focus on meeting you where you are, supporting small, steady steps toward lasting change. I enjoy working with people ready to explore growth and make meaningful shifts in their lives, providing an authentic, non-judgmental space for that journey.
What stands out about my therapeutic approach is that it’s collaborative, client-centered, and grounded in authenticity. I view therapy as a partnership, encouraging clients to advocate for their needs and actively shape their goals. I take an eclectic and relational stance, integrating strategies from CBT, DBT, ERP, mindfulness, Reality Therapy, solution-focused tools, strengths-based interventions, and choice-oriented approaches. This flexibility allows me to tailor treatment to each client’s unique challenges, ensuring our work is both personalized and effective. I prioritize showing up genuinely in therapy, so you can do the same, fully and without judgment. Working with me, you can expect to gain practical tools, deeper self-awareness, and the confidence to face life’s challenges with resilience. Whether it’s calming anxiety, improving communication, navigating grief, or building self-esteem, our work will help you reconnect with your strengths, feel grounded in your identity, and create lasting, meaningful change. I’m also committed to ongoing professional development, particularly in understanding the comorbidity and intersectionality of disorders, trauma-informed care, and grief and loss. This ensures that I provide holistic, compassionate, and effective support for clients navigating complex challenges, helping them leave sessions feeling empowered, supported, and confident in the next steps of their growth.
My ideal client is someone who’s ready to move toward the life they truly want, even if they’re not yet sure how to get there. They may be navigating grief, healing from trauma, adjusting to major life changes, or working through anxiety, mood challenges, or questions about identity. I especially enjoy working with clients who want to deepen self-awareness and cultivate mindfulness in a natural, practical way. My goal is to help people find hope, build confidence, strengthen connection, and create an authentic life that is joyful, meaningful, and uniquely their own.
In our work together, I use something called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT. It’s not about getting rid of difficult thoughts or feelings, but learning how to relate to them differently so they don’t control your life. If you’re feeling anxious, ACT helps you notice worry without letting it stop you from doing what matters. With anger, it helps you pause, see the emotion for what it is, and choose a response that fits who you want to be. With grief, ACT makes space for sadness while also helping you move toward meaning and honoring the person or thing you’ve lost. And with trauma, it gives us tools to face painful memories gently, without getting stuck in them, while slowly rebuilding safety, trust, and purpose. The goal isn’t to erase pain, but to help you carry it in a way that still allows you to live fully and move toward the life you want.
One approach I sometimes use is called Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. It’s about gently and gradually facing the situations, memories, or feelings that bring up fear, discomfort, or distress instead of avoiding them. When we avoid, the fear usually grows stronger. With ERP, we take it step by step, so your brain and body can learn that you’re safer and stronger than the fear makes you feel. For anxiety, this might mean slowly facing the things that trigger worry, until they lose their power. With OCD, it’s about being exposed to the triggers for compulsions and practicing not doing the ritual, so you can break free from that cycle. With grief, ERP helps you approach memories or reminders you’ve been avoiding, so you can honor your loss without feeling stuck in avoidance. And with trauma, ERP is used very carefully and gently as a means of helping you face reminders of what happened in safe, manageable ways, so the past doesn’t control the present.
When we’re working with grief, trauma, or loss, therapy isn’t about trying to ‘get over it’ or erase the pain. Instead, it’s about helping you find ways to carry the loss while still being able to live your life in a meaningful way. In grief therapy, we use different strategies depending on your needs. Sometimes that means creating space to really feel and process the sadness or anger that comes with loss. Other times it means learning grounding skills, so when memories or emotions feel overwhelming, you have tools to steady yourself. We might also work on gently approaching memories or reminders you’ve been avoiding, so they don’t hold as much power over you. Together, we explore how to honor what you’ve lost while also reconnecting with your values and the things that give your life meaning. The goal isn’t to take away your grief, but to help you move through it in a way that feels healing, supportive, and true to you.
In our work together, I may use an approach called positive psychology. It doesn’t ignore pain or pretend things are fine, but instead, it’s about helping you also notice and build on your strengths, values, and moments of hope, even while you’re struggling. For anxiety or depression, positive psychology helps shift focus from what feels wrong to what gives you energy, meaning, and purpose. With grief or trauma, it can support you in honoring your pain while also finding sources of resilience and connection that help you move forward. And when it comes to self-esteem or self-concept, we work on identifying your strengths, building self-compassion, and recognizing the qualities that make you who you are. The goal isn’t to force positivity, but to balance the hard feelings with growth, meaning, and strengths—so you can feel more whole and capable as you heal.
One approach I often use is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or TF-CBT. It’s designed to help people who’ve experienced difficult or overwhelming events, whether that’s trauma, grief, anxiety, depression, or major life changes. The idea isn’t to erase what happened, but to help you understand how your thoughts, feelings, and memories are connected, and to give you practical tools to manage them in a way that feels safer and more manageable. For anxiety and depression, we explore patterns of thinking that might be making you feel stuck or overwhelmed, and practice ways to respond that are more balanced and helpful. With grief or trauma, we move at a pace that feels safe, gently approaching difficult memories while building coping skills so those feelings don’t take over your daily life. For stress, life transitions, or self-esteem challenges, TF-CBT helps you challenge negative self-talk, develop healthier coping strategies, and build confidence in yourself. Throughout therapy, the goal is to help you feel more steady, supported, and in control of your emotions and actions. It’s about creating space for healing, learning to manage difficult experiences, and moving forward in a way that aligns with your values and what matters most to you.