Our therapists offer DBT / dialectical behavior therapy in Austin, TX

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.

Simone Ducloux is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who is passionate about providing treatment for depression, anxiety, relationship issues, trauma, compulsive behaviors, and body image concerns. During her experience counseling adults in a community clinic setting, and her experience counseling young adults in a college counseling center, and her experience counseling adults in a community clinic setting, as well as young adults in a college counseling center, Simone developed a strong awareness of the important roles that creativity and self-compassion play in helping people connect with their strengths and trust themselves to work through challenges.

Simone completed her Bachelor of Music (BM) and her Master of Music (MM) in Piano at the University of Texas. She completed her Master of Arts (MA) in Professional Counseling at Texas State University. 

Simone has a warm and attentive style and integrates clinical perspectives and evidence-based techniques from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), and person-centered/humanistic approaches into her practice. It can feel lonely and confusing to navigate through life’s difficulties in the absence of a therapeutic relationship with someone who can help you process your thoughts and feelings, and to connect with your inner resources, so that you may build skills to find meaning and worth in all of your experiences, as you work toward your goals.