Sometimes life is HEAVY—and sometimes what we’re carrying is visible to the people around us, but often it isn’t. Chronic illness, pain, grief, trauma, caregiving, and uncertainty can leave us feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or exhausted. Having a place where you don’t have to hold it all together—that's important. That’s why I started HAVEN: to offer people a space to slow down, take a breath, and release all the messy parts, the complicated parts, the things you understand, and the things you don’t have words for yet. We can talk, but we can also pay attention to what your body is communicating. There is no expectation that you show up a certain way.
I came to this work with my own long-term health challenges, profound loss, uncertainty, and a life that looks very different from what I once imagined. I don’t assume that means I know exactly what your experience feels like, but it has shaped the way I listen and my willingness to sit with things that may not have an easy answer or tidy resolution. I hope our work gives you room to understand yourself more deeply and find greater flexibility, self-trust, and choice. You don’t need to have the right words or know where to begin. Just show up.
I look forward to meeting you,
Jennifer
Licenses, Certifications, & Trainings
As a Licensed Professional Counselor and Mental Health Service Provider (LPC-MHSP) in Tennessee, I am licensed to diagnose and treat mental health concerns across the state. I am also a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional (CCFP), supporting clients experiencing burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue, including healthcare professionals, first responders, educators, caregivers, and others in high-stress roles. My work is integrative and grounded in an understanding that our emotional experiences are not separate from the body and nervous system. I am a certified Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) practitioner, incorporating these listening-based, polyvagal-informed approaches within psychotherapy. SSP uses specially filtered music to support a greater sense of safety, connection, and engagement with the world around us, while RRP uses immersive instrumental soundscapes to support deeper rest, body awareness, and restoration. Together, or used individually based on each client's needs, these approaches can help build nervous system flexibility, presence, and emotional resilience. I have also completed advanced training in Brainspotting, Somatic Experiential Therapy (SomEx), integrative hypnotherapy, somatic movement, and polyvagal-informed psychotherapy. Additional training in neuro-integrative medicine and the gut-brain connection informs my whole-person perspective and helps me recognize when collaboration with or referral to medical, nutritional, or other healthcare providers may be beneficial. I use this training to inform psychotherapy and collaborative care, not to provide medical or nutritional treatment. I draw from these approaches to help clients notice and work with sensations, emotions, protective responses, and patterns as they emerge. Therapy becomes something you experience, not just talk about, with an emphasis on developing greater awareness, agency, self-trust, and choice.
Beyond the Therapy Room
Before becoming a therapist, I spent nearly two decades as an teaching artist and arts advocate. Creativity has been one of the ways I make sense of the world. That creative thread still runs through much of who I am and how I approach my work. Outside of the therapy room, I return again and again to making art, spending time in nature, reading, and creating spaces that invite people to slow down and find comfort. I'm a bookbinder and mixed-media artist, and I work with photography, sculpture, found objects, and materials that have a rich history. I also love decorating and turning a space into somewhere that feels warm, welcoming, and inviting. When the weather is cool, I like to kayak on a quiet lake or wandering through a used bookstore looking for mythology, folklore, ghost stories, poetry, or a beautifully written memoir. I also genuinely enjoy simplifying and organizing things—not because I think life should be minimalist, but because there's something satisfying about making room for meaningful things and letting go of what no longer supports me. I suppose there's a common thread in all of it: I'm curious about the stories we carry, the things we keep, the spaces we inhabit, and the ways we make meaning from our experiences. Those interests belong to me as a person, but inevitably, they shape the therapist I am too.