I am a Psychologist with ADHD.
We are doing this together to help others. If we can reach just one person by doing this, I feel like this has been worth it.
I take a very collaborative approach with my clients and view them as part of their own treatment team. I frequently like to include other members of their family into therapy as well, if they are open to that. Therapy is often like assembling a puzzle with the client. They provide the pieces such as feelings, symptoms, behaviors, life story, and background information. I guide them in assembling those pieces into an understandable picture using a variety of theories, models, and interactive discussion. Often, I provide tentative theories and ask clients to determine whether they fit. I definitely do not have all of the answers! It is very important to me that my clients feel comfortable, accepted, and valued. We are all human and we all struggle while making countless mistakes in life. It is a privilege to be given the opportunity to help others at vulnerable times in their lives. I attempt to get results as fast as possible by providing outside "assignments" such as reading, exercising, writing letters or journals. I encourage my clients to use natural supplements or prescriptions if needed, while increasing their social support system in order to get better faster.
Education
After completing her undergraduate and Master’s degrees at Vanderbilt University and her doctoral degree at the University of Tennessee, Beth worked with the college population at University Counseling Centers for 5 years and then returned to Chattanooga, where she was born and raised. Since returning to Chattanooga 17 years ago, she and her husband Remo have had 3 children and she has been working in private practice. After 8 years at New Beginnings Counseling Center, she established her own practice called Grounded Counseling. Beth enjoys working with adolescents and adults on a variety of issues, including relationship issues, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, family issues, grief, addiction issues, family of origin issues, trauma work, identity work, and other issues.
During her doctoral training, Beth thoroughly enjoyed her work with the college population at several universities, including the University of Tennessee, New Hampshire, the University of South Florida, and then later the first “official job” at Baylor University. In 2004, Beth got married and decided to return to Chattanooga to join the private practice where her mother had worked for many years. She worked in this group practice from 2004 to 2013, and had three children, and decided in 2013 to go out on her own and founded her own business practice, called Grounded Counseling.
Interests
Beth’s greatest interests, apart from spending time with people, of course, include art, yoga, sports, food, holistic medicine, religious and philosophical discussions (NOT politics), watching her kids participate in sports, farmers markets, decorating/antiquing, thrift store shopping, and used to love running with friends before her body stopped cooperating.
Beth has always been an interesting mix of the serious and the goody, loving deep conversations and loving to laugh and be goofy. Even as a child, she found herself mediating her parents conflicts and listening to friends problems. There is nothing she finds more interesting than people and their stories. Beth has a huge passion for helping others become comfortable in their own skin and lowering the bar for them in order to enable them to live in the freest and fullest way possible. Beth is a Christian who would like for herself and all Christians to be known as the most loving, safe, compassionate, humble, and compassionate people in the world like Jesus Christ was. It greatly saddens her that many people do not experience Christians who embody these traits.
Family
Beth was born and raised outside of Chattanooga Tennessee on top at Lookout Mountain, where her father began his career as a sociology professor at Covenant College. Her mother was trained as a marriage and family counselor, but primarily stayed at home to raise Beth (the middle child) and her two brothers until their middle school years. They lived in an old Air Force neighborhood which was filled with other professors and young children who had also moved to Lookout Mountain when Covenant College purchased a magnificent historic hotel in 1970. Her family shared one car until her mother started working outside the home in the early 1980s. Beths modest upbringing was Ideallic in many ways,, but never perfect, of course.
Beth has been married for 17 years and her family consists of a son, two daughters, all of whom are in middle and early high school, and a dog and a cat. Her colorful and brutally honest husband Remo is from Scotland, and keeps her on her toes.