Counseling & Psychological Services

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Sammi enjoys working with students with a variety of mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, familial concerns, trauma, identity exploration, and others. She is committed to supporting diverse identities and exploring intersectionality for those who are seeking increasing awareness of their experiences, growth, self-compassion, and personal change by offering a safe and supportive space. Sammi is specifically interested in supporting students with LGBTQIA+, first-generation, or other marginalized identities.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Sammi's approach is tailored to each client's experience by utilizing inclusive collaborative and integrative approaches. She hopes to instill a courageous space that is authentic, trustworthy, and empowering where clients can explore their goals while identifying their strengths for promoting change. Sammi's style typically stems from strength-based and person-centered modalities, with an eclectic blend of interventions.

Personal Interests

Sammi enjoys spending time with her friends and family, going on walks, visiting the Greenway, petting dogs, caring for her succulents, and shopping at TJ Maxx.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Aaron is particularly interested in human emotion, eating and body image concerns and disorders, group therapy, and assessment and differential diagnosis. He is passionate about working with clients wanting to process and better understand their emotions and emotional experiences related to their therapeutic concerns, to explore the therapeutic effects of group therapy, and to develop their own unique identities.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Aarons ideal therapeutic relationship is collaborative in nature, established with openness and honesty, and safety and trust by working through a culturally humble framework. In therapy, Aaron takes an integrated approach, often blending aspects of emotion focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy via an existential lens. He also emphasizes meeting the client where they are at in a client-focused, humanistic, multicultural approach.

Personal Interests

Aaron enjoys spending time with friends and family, whether it be playing board games, going on a hike, or escaping into the realm of Dungeons and Dragons. For self-care, youll probably find him reading or writing something not related psychology, listening to music or podcast, playing with his cats Pumpkin and Patches, or experimenting with a new recipe.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Heidi has worked at the Counseling Center in varying roles since 2004 and comes from a background in community and school-based mental health, where she learned to appreciate working in integrated, interdisciplinary health services settings. Heidi works with a wide range of issues, including depression and suicide, trauma, anxiety, womens issues, eating concerns, and relationship and attachment problems, and is particularly interested in the connection between mental health and nature. Heidi has a strong passion for working with underserved and marginalized populations and for many years co-facilitated the Gender Spectrum Therapy Group at the Counseling Center. Heidi was involved in the early development of a formal relationship between the Counseling Center and the Athletics Department, to improve access to services for student-athletes. More recently, Heidi has become interested in mental health training at the community level for prevention and reduction of stigma.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Heidi has a holistic, collaborative approach to therapy. Her theoretical orientation is integrative, primarily drawing from humanistic, interpersonal process, and relational-cultural and feminist perspectives. Heidi frequently incorporates mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral, and dialectical behavioral techniques into her work. She has a strong belief in every person's capacity for growth and healing and views her role as therapist as creating an affirming, inclusive space to foster change and potential.

Personal Interests

Heidi cherishes spending time with her family and loved ones, especially going on outdoor adventures with her husband and two children. She is an avid runner, cyclist, and skier and takes any opportunity to get out in the mountains of the High Country. Heidi is also a keen traveler and especially enjoys experiencing different cultures. In her quieter moments, she enjoys yoga, reading, and gardening.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Jacob's approach is based within the integrative model and can best be described as client-centered, collaborative, and trauma-informed. To this end, he strives to consider the unique culture and lived experiences of each client, and draws from theory rooted in interpersonal and existential psychology. He values working from a strength-based perspective and deploys a variety of empirically-based therapy modalities, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI) to help clients reach their goals.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Jacob has specific training and experience in Sport and Performance Psychology and has worked with athletes at the college and professional level over the course of his career. Additionally, he has a strong interest in Military Psychology, having worked with military personnel prior to their deployments as well as veterans transitioning back to civilian life.

Personal Interests

Jacob enjoys training for, competing in, and watching any and all forms of athletics. He also enjoys cross-cultural travels, adventures in the wilderness, spending time with his wife and family, and strives to do at least one thing a day that scares him a little.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Scott likes to utilize "Strengths Based Perspective" to meet students where they are in their college journey, and assist them in connecting with community resources that will best meet their needs. In addition, he incorporates Cognitive-Behavioral therapy into his Individual Therapy practices when working with students.

Personal Interests

Scott enjoys anything outdoors, time with his family, video games, and traveling to new places.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Chris has a particular interest in the relationship between physical and mental health, men's issues, mindfulness, research in clinical settings, and program evaluation.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Chris is respectful of each individual and focuses on the development of the whole person. He integrates interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral therapy into his work with students, while also emphasizing a client-centered, mindfulness, and multicultural approach.

Personal Interests

In his spare time, Chris enjoys spending time with his family; sports and exercise, whether it be heading to the gym, hiking a trail, or watching a game on T.V.; traveling and exploring new places; and the challenges of learning how to do new home improvement projects.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Julie works with a wide variety of concerns, but has a particular passion for working with trauma, sexual assault, identity development, LGBTQ issues, and emotion regulation difficulties. She has a strong interest in and passion for helping individuals explore their intersecting identities and the ways in which they move through the systems in place in the community and in the world. In addition to this, she also enjoys group therapy, supervision, and training.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Julie's approach to working with clients is collaborative and integrative. Her approach is multicultural, trauma-informed, rooted in interpersonal therapy, and draws from existential, mindfulness-based, and Dialectical Behavioral therapy (DBT) modalities. She values the unique nature of each individual, as well as their values, goals, and strengths.

Personal Interests

In her free time, Julie enjoys spending time with her friends and family, cooking, reading good books, and watching puppy videos on YouTube.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Leslie's areas of interest include the training and supervision of new and emerging professionals. She also enjoys career counseling, working with non-traditional students, and helping students who are navigating identity-related and developmental concerns. Leslie is passionate about prevention and outreach efforts, and loves working with the Appalachian State Mental Health Ambassadors, a program she co-created and co-coordinates with Dr. Brooke Powers.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Leslie's approach to working with clients is collaborative, and she prefers a holistic integrative approach to treatment that incorporates cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, existential, and client-centered techniques. Leslie recognizes that there is no one size fits all approach to therapy and tries to tailor her interventions to each clients unique needs and preferences. The value of authenticity is appreciated and modeled in Leslies therapy sessions.

Personal Interests

Leslie's interests and hobbies include playing pranks on her co-workers, spending time with her family, enjoying the outdoors, armchair traveling, magic, and robots. Okay, shes not really into magic and robots, but she does love to read five books at once, listen to good music, and spend money on shoes.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Julia enjoys working with students with a variety of mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, interpersonal relationship concerns, familial concerns, survivors of trauma, and eating concerns. Julia has a particular interest in the relationship between physical and mental health, connecting students to campus and community resources and decreasing the stigma around seeking help for mental health concerns. Julia is committed to supporting students with diverse identities offering a safe and supportive space that honors cultural differences and experiences.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Julia's approach tailors to each clients wants and needs through an integrative model that encompasses a strength-based, client-centered, trauma informed, and interpersonal frameworks. She utilizes Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and mindfulness, and body-focused interventions. Julia values courage and authenticity and wants to create a safe space to work collaboratively with students towards their healing and growth while recognizing that counseling can feel hard and awkward at times.

Personal Interests

Julia enjoys spending time with family and friends, exercising, being outdoors, capturing photos of authentic moments and nature, strives to keep her plants alive and enjoys target retail therapy.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Fengdi has experience providing individual counseling and group counseling for adults on a variety of mental health issues in behavioral health clinics and community mental health settings. Some of her areas of interest include working with students struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, and severe and persistent mental illnesses, and students in minority groups (LGBTQQ+ students, international students, racial and ethnic minorities etc.).

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Fengdi's approach is eclectic, multicultural, trauma-informed, and built upon the person-centered approach and therapeutic relationships. Fengdi draws interventions from a variety of approaches, such as Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Experiential Therapy.

Personal Interests

Fengdi loves practicing martial arts, nature, animals (especially dogs and goats), authentic Chinese food, spending time with friends and spending time outdoors.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Emma enjoys working with students with a variety of mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, interpersonal relationship concerns, adjustment/transitional stress, and identity formation. She is passionate about supporting individuals of diverse identities who are seeking personal change and growth, and she has particular interest in supporting students with LGBTQIA+, first-generation, or other marginalized identities. Emma's professional and research interests include multicultural counseling, working with survivors of domestic/interpersonal violence, attachment, and healthy interpersonal functioning.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Emma approaches counseling from a collaborative, integrative, and multicultural perspective. She hopes to create a warm, nonjudgmental and compassionate healing environment for her clients that fosters wellness, cultivates personal growth, and encourages whole-hearted living. Emma's approach is rooted in person-centered, strengths-based, and holistic counseling. She also utilizes cognitive-behavioral, motivational interviewing, and body/mindfulness-based interventions.

Personal Interests

In her free time, Emma enjoys running, cooking, Pilates, creating music, spending time with loved ones, and binge-watching reality TV shows.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Gayatri has training as a marriage and family therapist and also in the field of medical family therapy working with people from different cultural contexts and countries. Some of the areas of interest include multicultural sensitivity, mindfulness and meditation, dealing with health related issues, coping with stress, life transitions, cultural adjustment, grief and loss, self-care, emotional well-being, self-esteem, communication, relational issues and helping people achieve a better balance in life.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Gayatri is collaborative in her therapeutic approach and is interested in helping people discover and celebrate their uniqueness, gifts, and strengths so as to create more happiness and joy in their lives and relationships. She enjoys helping people figure out what their dreams are and how they can achieve them.

Personal Interests

Gayatri enjoys learning about new cultures and their cuisines, traveling, baking, writing, gardening, listening to music, reading, meditating, and painting.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Adriana enjoys working with college students with a variety of concerns. She is especially interested in helping students experiencing challenges with anxiety, stress, depression, eating concerns, and substance use, as well as issues related to gender and sexuality. She is also passionate about finding ways to bring counseling services to underserved and marginalized students.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Adriana integrates several therapeutic approaches in her counseling practice. She uses a person-centered approach that incorporates mindfulness, solution-focused approaches, and techniques from Motivational Interviewing and cognitive therapies. She focuses on meeting each client where they are, working to center their unique experiences and identities in order to empower them in reaching their goals.

Personal Interests

Adriana enjoys music, drag shows, travel, and attempting to read through the New Yorker each week.

Professional Interests / Areas of Expertise

Ashley comes to Appalachian State with a background in health psychology and has trained in university counseling, hopsital settings, and community mental health. She is especially passionate about work with trans* students, queer-identified students, students of color, and students struggling with other issues of marginalization. Ashley has specialized training in the treatment of eating disorders and coordinates the interdisciplinary Eating Concerns Treatment Team for the Counseling Center.

Approach to Counseling / Theoretical Orientation

Ashley takes a holistic approach to treatment, but above all, believes that change begins with the client-therapist relationship. Working from a Gestalt perspective within a multicultural framework, her therapy style is heavily relational with an emphasis on power dynamics and their impact on interpersonal process. She frequently incorporates experiential and body-focused interventions with techniques from cognitive-behavioral, dialectical behavioral, and emotion-focused therapies. Ashley strives to work collaboratively to facilitate holistic healing and well-living for all of her clients.

Personal Interests

Ashley's favorite place to be is outdoors with her husband and daughter- especially if it involves hiking or camping. To quench her creative side, she also loves baking, gardening, and woodworking. Her favorite pastime, however, is teaming up with her daughter to raise swallowtail butterflies in their backyard.

Izzy is part of a Pet Therapy Team with Dr. Chris Hogan. Izzy enjoys being around people, getting pets (especially belly rubs once she gets to know you!), playing fetch, chewing bones, and playing with her stuffed hedgehog. She likes to visit students in the Counseling Center lobby, during walks around campus, and at outreach events. Feel free to stop and give her a pet when you see her!