Accepted insurance & self-pay
About Kelly
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.
What clients say
These testimonials are from real clients who completed a satisfaction survey after their sessions and agreed to share their feedback. Results may vary.
Everything is going very well
A Thriveworks Client, verified client of Kelly
Kelly is very helpful in providing tools i need to overcome my problems.
A Thriveworks Client, verified client of Kelly
Get to know Kelly
Why did you decide to become a counselor?
I decided to become a counselor when I decided to leave newspaper journalism at the Houston Chronicle. I realized that I liked the work of getting to know people but I didn't like the job of having to tell about it the next day in the paper. I like the personal, confidential confines of the counseling relationship.
What type of clients are you most excited to work with?
I am excited to work with any client who has the courage to seek help.
What do you want to accomplish with an individual in their first session?
People generally don't come to counseling to hear all about how they are doing well. After the first session, I hope to have identified one area for growth for a person, some way that they can better bargain for themselves in the world and start treating themselves like they are someone they are responsible for helping.
Other areas of focus
Education and training
- Years in practice
- 20 years
- Graduating institute
- University of Texas, San Antonio
- Graduating degree
- Master of Arts
