Licenses and Requirements
My name is Trish Watson and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate supervised by Amy Evans-Gean, MA, LPC-S. Since earning my graduate degree and license, I have further invested in more specialized training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), and becoming sensitive and knowledgeable in treating challenging relationships, crisis, trauma, and emotional/psychological/spiritual abuse.
Having the Texas State license to practice as a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate means I have achieved all the required master’s level counseling classes, the clinics and required research during graduate school, passed the exams, and follow the Texas statutes to make sure you are given the best care.
Completing a graduate degree in counseling requires rigorous coursework to comprehend, appreciate, and become competent in the many things that can affect human development and cause dysfunction. A counseling graduate degree includes class work in normal human growth and development, abnormal human behavior, assessment and appraisal, research and statistics, lifestyle and career development, counseling theories and techniques, professional ethics, patterns of change in social, culture, and family issues and systems, group dynamics, as well as specialized classes of interest in family systems, crisis and trauma. and the internships to practice and gain experience counseling.
Why I help
My life growing up was not the easiest, and counseling helped me through that time and other challenging times in my life. When I was a teen, I felt called to help others then, but felt I needed to wait to counsel until I had more life experiences. Now I have many years of personal experiences, becoming successful despite my childhood, marriage, raising three children while juggling a demanding career, and making the difficult decision to give up my career to stay home when I had my third child. Then transitioning again into a new career after staying home, and also going through physical and relational losses. I have been in ministry at the church but wanted more opportunities. I hope to provide better, more sensitive, educational, and beneficial services than I felt I received sometimes.
Formal Education
Consequently, I went back to graduate school to become fully equipped to counsel with the upmost care and skill possible. I attained a Master’s in counseling from B.H. Carroll Theological Institute that included the required classes aforementioned, and also required many additional spiritual classes in Biblical interpretation, doctrine and theology, Christian servant leadership, and more specific classes diving deep into many books of the Bible. These extra classes enabled me to confidently reconcile the parts of my walk and needed boundaries around idealism, or vague, unhelpful Christian exhortations, and verses being misused. This content was deeper than any certification in spiritual abuse a lot of counselors might receive in a weekend or two. The religious coursework helped free me from being influenced by common inaccurate interpretations and uses of the Bible (and other group think pressures in different cultures, organizations, and systems), giving me freedom to access a more abundant life.
God is wise and wants us to be wise as well, with instructions “Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.” and warns us to always be alert for your enemy. freely to those who seek it, not tearing down boundaries, concern and I can respect those boundaries. However, even though gaining confidence in interpreting and evaluating different teaching, growing my relationship with Jesus, and reconciling my Christian faith was important to me. Going through this process of analyzing and thoroughly evaluating belief systems is helpful to gain understanding where value systems come from, our ethics and morals, being comfortable with what you believe, and how to be more comfortable discussing and relating to the complexity of worldviews we really live in.
I understand this is not how all people want to relate to the world often because of a history of being coerced or manipulated by teachings in the scripture, with people who believe they have good intentions, and often being a very accepted way of intellectualizing away normal, necessary amounts of concern, spiritually bypassing our intuition and feelings, and what God gave us for our protection.
Post Grad Training
I am a continuous learner, and am refreshing my skills and on the look out for new interventions that can be affective and am synthesizing different models together for the most robust and adaptable treatment. Learning across multiple approaches helps strengthen the parts that work, fill in gaps in each, and identify and address areas that may not be as helpful under certain circumstances, or even where therapy can be manipulated, like in couples or family counseling.
The first training I received was EMDR, (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) after receiving the necessary healing I needed after I was rear ended and very weary of driving. I was shocked at how effective EMDR was, and the deep full somatic healing I received. I wasn’t just talking myself out of my anxiety and fear of intersections. It seemed like EMDR reminded all of me that I was a good enough driving. Yet EMDR had so much more to offer than I realized.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy was the next training I invested my time in because of the many coping skills it was known to have to help clients emotionally regulate. Being able to choose the right tool for the right time, practice the well, and remember them when they are necessary, is about good training and repetition.
Attachment theory was extremely popular because of the patterns that are so common seen and deeply felt in relationships. Learning experiential interventions like Emotional Focused Individual therapy and understanding how to engage in Internal Parts Work, blend in so well with healing childhood trauma and relational injuries that most people experience.
Family counseling has been the most complex, where Gottman Level 1 training was a good introduction and highly informative, I felt it needed to be supplemented to be able to pick up on narcissistic abuse that can happen intentionally or unintentionally. Either way, they deeply affect everyone in the system, but mostly the one who has been taken advantage of and usually shamed, criticized and questioned systematically across many structures of someone’s environment. It can be very difficult to identify when covert narcissism is at play, especially when it has an altruistic or a victim’s mask. Regular couple’s therapy is not beneficial where emotional or psychological abuse is present, which usually treats both clients as equally contributing to the environment. Terry Real’s Relational Life Therapy approach comes equipped to address necessary factors in a relationship like receptivity to correction, however, in these cases it still might be contraindicated to do counseling together. Other controlling and distancing identifiers from Mia Mellody’s Co-dependence and Love Addict or Love Avoidant patterns, need to be addressed, which is similar to Attachment Theories Anxious, Ambivalent, and Avoidant styles. This approach helps focus the therapy to do deep healing where needed, rather than focusing just on communication and trying to just make more superficial changes.
Collaborative Counseling
I want to provide a safe and honest atmosphere for you. I will listen attentively and actively to you, and help you focus on different aspects of the situation that might help or be affecting you. You may see more possibilities of what is happening, and therefore feel less stuck. Working towards fully describing your story could help you notice and appreciate what strengths you bring to the table. Having new mindsets and tools can bring more hope of attaining the outcomes you want. I think some people come to counseling for interactive help, so I will share what I think is relevant and what could be helpful to your situation, and let you consider it and decide if it fits. I’ll answer questions you may have when appropriate or work to get those answers for you; not just turn the question back on you. I welcome feedback if something bothers you, so we can get clarity and safety again. I want you to remain in control of your therapy and goals. I can also be a support and encouragement if your situation is continuously difficult or burdensome, to help it be more tolerable.