Ashley Dowdy - Coral Heart Counseling

Are you feeling alone, misunderstood, or overwhelmed with your current life circumstances? I believe that we can all agree that in our current climate, life is difficult and can throw us challenges that we believe to be unmanageable. Stressors from work, finances, family, friendships, and romantic partnerships can impede on your quality of life and interfere with the happiness you deserve. This is why I am here. Whether you are going through a career transition, navigating healthy boundaries, or in need of processing the negative thoughts or emotions you feel daily, I am here to help. I will address, validate and acknowledge these negative feelings/emotions while also providing the empowerment and evidence-based practices needed to help you take control of these various aspects of your life again.

I work with teens and young adults who are experiencing depression, anxiety, childhood trauma, career stress, eating disorders, and professional or interpersonal relationship issues. Through our individualized therapy sessions, I will provide a judgement free space aligned with empathy and grace while also challenging you to implement our therapy work into the various areas of your everyday lives. I will help you attain a better understanding and awareness of your feelings, behaviors, and thoughts while also developing healthy coping techniques that can help reframe the negative thoughts and behaviors you are experiencing.

I intend to hold a relaxed, judgment free environment in regards to our therapy sessions. Though our sessions will be primarily client driven, with your permission I help navigate the negative feelings and emotions that may come up for you. Therapy is not always comfortable. It’s tough. But I will provide the comfort needed to sit in those feelings you are experiencing and guide you through the process.

My approaches for therapy include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), where we will reframe the negative thoughts you may be feeling- but also through the lens of a strength based perspective. This perspective will empower you to achieve your therapeutic goals and meet you where you are in the therapeutic process.

I am proud of you for taking the difficult step of addressing the emotional challenges you are facing. Give yourself grace on this healing journey as we work through the tough moments. We are in this together. I look forward to working with you!

Contract and Consultant Work

My passion is being a healer to those who have found themselves feeling emotionally injured, stuck, unheard, and undeserving. As a licensed psychotherapist and mental health professional, I utilize my knowledge of mental wellness, clinical therapeutic techniques, antiracism, and social justice to empower and assist in the growth of individuals, groups, communities, schools, and workspaces. I do this by providing therapy, workshops, healing circles, and consulting services. Because much of my work has been with people who have been impacted by historical, generational, and/or systemic trauma, my framework and clinical therapeutic techniques are culturally, developmentally, systemically, and trauma informed.

While I earned my Master’s Degree in Social Work at Erikson Institute, I was able to gain extensive knowledge about working with many age groups and communities. Hence, I started my career as a therapist by providing psychotherapy to children and adolescents, and by collaborating with their families and school providers to implement mental wellness services, strengthen bonds, and improve school success rates. After some time, I noticed how many of the adolescents I worked with were struggling to smoothly transition into college. I also noticed how children were heavily impacted by biased rules and policies created by the adults in their lives who had their own emotional battles to resolve. As a result, I started to work with young adults and adult mental health. My transition was because I discovered that one factor that influences a young person’s overall health is the mental wellness, perspectives, and intentions of those who are leading them.

When working with others, I provide a warm, caring, non-judgment, and compassionate experience, while centering the voices of those who are most vulnerable and marginalized in society. I see everyone as a human being who is trying to do the best that they can with the knowledge that they currently have. However, I also see each person as being capable of growth and realigning themselves

for the betterment of society. Consequently, my goal is to continue assisting in transforming thought processes and experiences so that our best traits as human beings can show and impact each other in a positive way. I also work to reshape challenges and traumatic moments into learning opportunities and relief. This is so that people can eventually see troubling times as just memories, as opposed to triggering incidents that might influence their decisions and actions. Ultimately, my hope is that the guidance, strategies, and skills I provide, rooted in mental wellness, can aid in healing, growth, true freedom of the mind, and feeling at ease.

Current contract and consultancy offers include:

Providing specialized cultural and trauma-informed care, guidance, and coaching.
Leading teams, groups, and workshops to provide education and information on the various components of mental health and wellness practices.
Assisting in the healing of collective emotional injuries and pain points of small and large groups.
Facilitating healing and restorative justice circles to bring about a sense of peace, belonging, and compassion.
Interceding with crisis intervention to rapidly emotionally stabilize individuals, families, groups, and communities.
Collaborating with entities to carefully analyze existing systems in place in order to truly identify if spaces, policies, and procedures account for inclusivity and mental wellness, as well as support historically devalued, underrepresented, underserved, and vulnerable populations.
Creating thoughtful conversations and workshops amongst individuals, teams, and leaders in order to work toward understanding the self, internal workings, and how one interacts and influences the world around them and people whom they steer.
Providing guidance and strategic plans to incorporate wellness programs and inclusive environments.

Therapeutic Techniques used:

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Acute Stress Syndrome Stabilization Individual and Group (ASSYST-I and ASSYST-G)
EMDR Protocol for Recent Critical Incidents and Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-PRECI)
EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol for Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-IGTP-OTS)
Mindfulness and Mind-Body techniques
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Psychodynamic individual and group processing therapy
Psychoeducation on societal systems, mental health, and wellness

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