Elena loves working with young, mid-life and older adults who feel overwhelmed by life transitions or stagnant and numb, un-able to accomplish deeply-held dreams or to access their innate creativity. Elena offers a whimsical yet structured approach to therapy and enjoys drawing out clients’ inner resources, strengths and unique capacities to find resilience and hope. She especially enjoys working with those who feel haunted by their past and have experienced trauma. Elena is trained in basic EMDR and brainspotting (level one) which she uses with those who are working through symptoms of childhood or recent trauma. In addition, she uses exposure and response prevention therapy for clients dealing with OCD and has completed continuing education through the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals Foundation to support those with binge-eating, anorexia and bulimia. She also works with those with ADHD, bipolar disorder and other diagnoses.
Elena frequently draws upon her background co-leading Dialectical Behavioral Therapy groups to assist clients with emotion dysregulation, difficulty asserting themselves and expressing personal boundaries effectively. She also uses concepts from cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and internal family systems theory and mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy to assist clients.
Elena has experience at private practices in Winston-Salem and Austin, intensive in-home therapeutic services (TF-CBT) within the greater Forsyth County area and graduate school experience within a church setting counseling populations with homelessness.
In her free time, Elena enjoys oil and acrylic painting in bright and happy colors, jogging with friends and chasing tall trees with her husband and wild golden retriever.
Education:
M.S.S.W. (master’s of science in social work) from The University of Texas at Austin, 2019.
B.A. (batchelor of arts) from Wake Forest University with English with Honors and a minor in Psychology, 2015.
Certificates:
Licensed Clinical Social Worker in North Carolina since 2019.
Training:
-Basic EMDR training
-Brainspotting, Level One training
-International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals completion of core classes, summer 2021
Population:
Adults 18 and up.