About Elyse

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and earned my Bachelors in Social Work from Dordt University in Iowa and my Masters in Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill. I have a diverse background of experience, including working with teen survivors of human trafficking, helping to provide mental health support to East African refugees in Uganda, assisting in the care and wellbeing of teens in a psychiatric care, and providing crisis invention and support to people facing domestic violence. I also provided arts-based individual and group therapy to children and adults with a variety of life experiences including persistent mental illness, mental and physical disabilities and those holding refugee status.

I believe in creating strong therapeutic relationships that empower each individual wherever they are. I want to co-create spaces of healing, safety, and freedom in an empathic, gentle and shame free manner. I am committed to creating unique and individual spaces for each client that are centered around their strengths and needs. To do this, I utilize a variety of different approaches to best fit my client’s needs, including arts-based therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, strengths-based, trauma informed and person-centered.

I specialize in working with children, anxiety, depression, trauma, self-esteem, and behavioral issues. I have additional training in trauma and offer both Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), a type of psychotherapy that uses rapid eye movements to help you replace distressing traumatic memories with more positive ones. I want each client to walk away with tools and skills that help them find the healing, hope and joy in life.

Elyse lives in Durham, NC with good friends and delights herself with plants and a variety of other creative outlets, the most recent one being oil painting.