Therapy in Charlottesville

Katevonni wants clients to know they do not have to come to therapy with the right words. They do not have to perform, explain themselves perfectly, or become someone else before they are allowed to ask for support. They can just show up as they are.

Katevonni earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice from James Madison University and a Master’s in Counselor Education for Clinical Mental Health from Virginia Tech. Her training included work with middle and high school students as well as clients in a community clinical setting, giving her experience across adolescence and adulthood.

Katevonni especially enjoys working with middle and high school clients. Sometimes talking is not the easiest way in, so she may use drawing, music, games, role play, or other creative activities to help a client communicate in a way that feels more natural. The point is not the activity itself. It is finding a way for the client to be heard.

Katevonni starts with the person, not the technique. Her work is person-centered and strengths-based, and she wants the client to keep ownership of the process. Her role is to listen closely, notice strengths that may be hard for the client to see, and help them figure out how they want to move forward.

Growing up in a Thai and Lao family also shapes the way Katevonni thinks about people and relationships. She understands that decisions are not always just individual decisions. Family expectations, cultural values, and the feeling of balancing different worlds can all matter. Katevonni wants therapy to be a place where clients do not have to leave those parts of themselves at the door.

After more than 25 years as a clinician, Lila still comes back to one rule: meet people where they are. Good therapy does not start with where someone “should” be. It starts with the person who is actually sitting in front of you.

Lila earned her undergraduate degree from Goucher College and her Master of Social Work from New York University. She has worked across multiple clinical settings and brings a multidisciplinary perspective to counseling. She is also an approved supervisor in Social Work and works as an Independent Psychiatric Evaluator for the Virginia Supreme Court.

Lila does not believe every client needs the same formula. Her work is client-centered, humanistic, trauma-informed, and focused on the whole person. Depending on what someone needs, she may use mindfulness, stress-management strategies, distress-tolerance skills, or other practical tools that make a hard day, week, or season feel more manageable.

Lila works with anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship stress, major life challenges, and more serious or longstanding mental health concerns. Sometimes therapy is about understanding something more deeply. Sometimes it is about finding a way to get through the week. Lila adjusts the work to the person, their goals, and what they are actually ready to take on.

Her style is steady, practical, compassionate, and respectful of each client’s pace. After decades of sitting with people through change, Lila knows that progress does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it is tolerating a hard feeling a little longer, handling stress differently, or realizing you have more choices than you thought.

Morgan believes something simple but powerful: you already have what it takes to guide your own life.

So much of who we become starts in childhood. As children, we learn how to survive, how to stay safe, stay loved, or stay small. Without realizing it, we can carry those same patterns into adulthood long after they have stopped serving us.

Morgan’s work is about helping clients see those patterns. Her approach is direct, educational, and collaborative, with a focus on relationships, family systems, boundaries, trauma, and the patterns families can carry across generations. Together, she and her clients build insight and self-awareness and explore new ways of showing up in everyday life that meet the goals of who they are now, not who they had to be in moments past.

She creates a safe space where clients can take off the layers, put down the armor, and come home to their most authentic selves. Not just in therapy, but in every part of their lives. Morgan firmly believes the therapy room is the practice room for the outside world, something she teaches to all her clients and supervisees.

Morgan earned her degree in Human Services with a minor in Psychology from Old Dominion University and a Master’s in Counseling from Liberty University. Her career has included work in social services, community services, public schools, therapeutic day schools, intensive in-home care, clinical supervision, and services for at-risk youth and families. She has provided outpatient therapy since 2019, is an approved supervisor for Residents in Counseling, and holds the Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS) credential from the Center for Credentialing & Education.

That same philosophy shapes Morgan’s work as a clinical supervisor. She encourages developing clinicians to stay present, trust their clinical instincts, listen for what is not being said, and ask thoughtful questions that help clients find their own answers. She teaches residents that their role is not to fix clients, but to create the conditions in which clients can build insight, practice new responses, and become more self-sufficient.

Robert is curious about why people do what they do. He likes looking underneath the obvious problem to see what past experiences, relationships, beliefs, or emotional patterns may still be shaping the present. Understanding the “why” is not the end of therapy for him, but it can make the next step a lot clearer.

Robert’s route to counseling was not exactly a straight line. He earned his Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Southern New Hampshire University, but before that he studied anthropology at the University of Virginia and completed graduate work in sustainable food systems at the University of Vermont. To Robert, those fields are not as unrelated as they might sound. All of them ask you to look closely at people, environments, histories, and the forces that shape how we live.

Robert primarily enjoys working with adults and is also continuing to build experience with adolescents. Clients often come in dealing with anxiety, depression, chronic stress, relationship patterns, or simply the feeling that life is not going the way they thought it would. He often looks at attachment and trauma to understand how earlier relationships or emotional wounds may still be influencing what someone expects from themselves and other people.

Robert combines insight with practical skills such as emotional regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and self-compassion. He can be empathetic and nonjudgmental without being vague. If he notices a pattern, he is willing to name it. He wants clients to feel safe enough to be honest and to know that honesty can go both ways.

For Robert, progress has to show up somewhere outside the therapy room. It might look like speaking up for a need, making room for self-care, responding differently in a relationship, letting an emotion exist without immediately trying to shut it down, or making a choice that feels more like your own.

Sarah does not see therapy as fixing a broken person. She sees it as helping people reconnect with themselves, understand what is happening, and remember that change is possible. Reaching out for therapy can take courage, and she wants clients to have a place where they can talk honestly without feeling judged.

Sarah earned her Master of Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University after a long career in education. She previously taught middle school, high school, and college students. Over time, she realized that some of the most meaningful moments in teaching were not about curriculum at all. They were the conversations in which a student needed a trusted adult to listen, help them make sense of something difficult, or simply be present. That experience ultimately helped lead her into clinical social work.

Sarah likes the variety of a generalist practice and works across ages and concerns. She looks at the whole picture: thoughts and emotions, what is happening in the body, relationships, support systems, attachment, coping patterns, and the experiences that shaped how someone learned to respond to stress. In clinical terms, that is a biopsychosocial approach. In plain language, it means she does not reduce a person to one symptom.

With children and teens, Sarah is especially careful to make therapy feel like it belongs to them too. She believes that young clients are more likely to engage when they understand that the room is a space for them.

Sarah sees the client as the expert on their own experience. Her job is not to tell someone what they should do. It is to offer empathy, perspective, support, and useful tools while the client figures out what works in real life. One of Sarah’s goals is for clients to eventually not need her.