Carrie Windham, M.MFT
Founder, Olive Leaf Counseling
Professional
Education:
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Bachelor of Science in Applied Behavioral Science
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Master of Marriage and Family Therapy, with Specialization in Emotional and Psychological Trauma
Credentialing:
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Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Associate, Supervisor Janet Levell Jergins, M.MFT, LPC-S, LMFT-S
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EMDR Training
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Brainspotting Training
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Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training
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Child-Centered Play Therapy Training
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Professional Experience:
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Providing trauma therapy to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families since 2017
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Therapeutic Style:
Carrie's style is best described as non-judgmental, empathic, positive, open, collaborative, and based on research and science. She uses a blend of data-driven therapies (such as IFS, EMDR, Brainspotting) with a person-centered approach. Therapy sessions include the continuous exploration of the client's world, because the client’s motivation, goals, interests, beliefs, personality, and preferences guide her work. Carrie enjoys sharing up-to-date research on mental health and brain science to empower clients in identifying how previous life experiences, pain, trauma, and relationships change the brain and body, resulting in psychological shifts that influence how life and challenges are encountered today. With these unique shifts in mind, Carrie personalizes treatment for each client to help them along the path to restoration.
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Past to Present:
Therapy is Carrie's second career, though both past and present vocations serve people in need. Always having a heart for those who are in anguish, Law Enforcement is where she spent the first 20+ years of her professional life. In Law Enforcement, she encountered human suffering like she had never seen. Noticing the generational traumas over and over occurring in families she encountered throughout the years turned her towards a deep desire for understanding the workings of this mystery.
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She pursued and obtained a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, with a specialization in emotional and psychological trauma. She dove right into the population she had always worked with. Carrie began her therapy career at a crisis center where she provided therapy to victims of violent crime, such as childhood sexual or physical abuse, adult physical or sexual assault, human trafficking, survivors of homicide/suicide, and robbery. In this capacity, Carrie was able to provide victims rights advocacy and legal accompaniment services for victims traversing the judicial system.
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After COVID-19 hit the globe and catapulted therapists from their offices into their homes, something changed for Carrie. She worked over a year providing online therapy for her clients and realized what a difference it made in connection for most. There is often an intimacy with online therapy not obtained in an office setting. Lives are more transparent, and clients are in their own environment - they get to share and show off their treasured possessions, pets are present to snuggle, and comfort items specific to that client are readily at hand. The experience motivated Carrie to launch Olive Leaf Counseling and offer this delivery mode in her own practice.
Personal
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Carrie is a wife, mother of three, and grandmother who adores spending time hanging out with her family and friends. She lives on a little farm near Abilene, Texas, where her chickens, sheep, turkeys, ducks, three dogs, and one guinea fowl keep life anything but boring. She loves gardening, canning, drawing, and reading.