Our therapists provide anxiety therapy in Austin, TX

I am a Resident in Counseling with 5 years of experience supporting clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. I specialize in helping individuals facing depression, anxiety, work stress, and addiction. I provide a safe, nonjudgmental space to explore challenges, build resilience, and foster growth. My goal is to empower clients to manage stress, improve relationships, and overcome patterns of self-doubt so they feel more balanced, confident, and connected in their daily lives.

I have a Master’s in Social Work from Our Lady of the Lake University. I integrate evidence-based practices such as dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and trauma-informed care. I tailor therapy to meet each client’s needs, ensuring that every person feels understood, supported, and empowered in their healing journey.

I believe everyone deserves a safe place to feel heard and supported. Life’s challenges can be heavy, but you don’t have to face them alone. Through warmth, compassion, and care, I help clients find healing, balance, and hope while working together at a pace that feels right for them.

Kelly Pedersen is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor who specializes in redefining perception: assisting individuals with trauma recovery and couples with intimacy-rebuilding with insight and useful techniques for bypassing roadblocks. She helps people hone their anger management skills and address the flip side of the coin: initiating the healing process after someone has endured physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. In addition, she helps people with trauma, life transitions, LGBTQ-related challenges, mood disorders, and geriatric issues.

Kelly is trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) as a technique to treat PTSD, and she assesses trauma through the dual lenses of spirituality and culture. She also uses cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) in her therapeutic processes.

"Stuck" situations require creative solutions! Solving a problem in isolation isn't easy, which is why collaboration with an experienced counselor can prove invaluable. The details of each person’s thinking may be varied and unique in every case, but Kelly believes that what is really important is the sense of being enough, sufficient, responsible, capable as yourself on top of the situation. When the work goes well (which certainly is the intention) the outcome will be the same: an increase in the sense of one’s own ability to manage life, and a feeling of growth and empowerment.

Kelly has a clear approach to counseling with people and it relates to what she sees as the ideal outcome of such work. The highest goal, the gold standard of good counseling, is an increase in client morale, significant growth of feeling competent and confident to work with the feelings and situations that brought you to counseling in the first place. A good counseling relationship has worked when one hears, “You know, I think I can handle this now. I feel a lot better and think I know what to work on and what to do.”

As a counselor, Kelly strives to encourage a therapeutic connection that serves as a "secure base", enabling you to challenge your misconceptions about yourself and refocus on your strengths. She believes that accessing new experiences in the context of a therapeutic relationship can help us rewire our brains and our lives.