Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor
All PHC clinicians are highly trained and able to treat our clients that are experiencing anxiety, depression, life transitions and/or mood disorders. Please continue to explore our bios if you require a more specialized treatment plan.
Missy Williams is a skilled therapist with extensive experience helping adults navigate the emotional aftermath of relational trauma, and the deep sense of shame that often follows. Her background in child development and years of working with children have given her valuable insight into the challenges parents, and the family system at large, experience. This expertise fuels her passion for parent coaching, where she supports parents in addressing behavioral concerns and social-emotional deficits, guiding them toward building healthier, more connected parent/child relationships.
Committed to helping her clients experience transformative growth, Missy brings a direct yet supportive approach to her work. She believes that deepening our connection to the self, others, and the world at large allows us to strengthen our insight, and create meaningful change. Moving beyond just “talk therapy”, Missy’s clients value her experience and expertise as well as her ability to appropriately challenge unhealthy patterns that no longer serve them, promote self compassion, and develop new ways of thinking and relating. Further, Missy’s training has also offered her a background in evidenced-based treatments like CBT, DBT, and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.
Additionally, Missy is trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), an effective intervention in alleviating trauma related symptoms as she believes often the body keeps the score as it pertains to traumatic experiences. Thus, healing trauma from the inside out can provide for improved treatment outcomes.
Missy earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Elon University, during which she studied abroad in Denmark where she studied child development and instructional techniques. It was here where her passion for empowering the lives of children was ignited. Inspired by these principles, Missy has extended her practice to speaking engagements and seminars where she speaks on topics related to youth mental health and parent coaching, and offers valuable insights and practical tools for parents, educators, and professionals working with children to promote long term emotional well-being and development.
Missy earned her Master of Arts degree in Counseling at Northwestern University. She has worked in various clinical settings including The Family Institute at Northwestern. As a Virginia native, Missy enjoys spending her free time with family and loved ones, cooking, playing guitar and listening to music, traveling, running, and playing tennis.
