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Kathleen Varley

My clinical focus is supporting individuals through grief, moral injury, and the lasting emotional effects of trauma. Traumatic experiences—whether sudden or cumulative—can disrupt one’s sense of identity, safety, and trust in the world, others, or oneself. Moral injury, which occurs when deeply held beliefs are violated, often brings feelings of shame, anger, disillusionment, or a loss of purpose.

Using Contextual Therapy, I explore the broader relational and ethical aspects of these experiences—how fairness, loyalty, responsibility, and trust affect well-being. This approach recognizes that unresolved pain often exists within complex relationships and generational patterns. When addressed with compassion and accountability, healing becomes possible. In therapy, I help clients understand how their personal and relational histories influence current struggles. Treatment focuses on restoring agency, reconnecting with core values, and fostering meaningful living. This may include working through unresolved emotions, rebuilding self-trust, and addressing relational imbalances to promote healing and clarity.

The goal is to help you reclaim agency, rebuild trust in yourself and others, and live intentionally. Whether you’re a healthcare provider, first responder, veteran, or facing life-altering challenges, you don’t have to carry this burden alone. Healing isn’t about forgetting the past but learning to live fully in its aftermath—grounded in your values, connected to your purpose, and empowered to move forward.

What Clients Can Expect

I utilize contextual therapy, EMDR, solution, and strengths-based therapy to help you manage anxiety, the symptoms of burnout, depression, trauma, PTSD, and recreate meaning. I help clients understand how their personal and relational histories influence current struggles.

I Work With

Adults | Couples | Families | Elders | Healthcare | Veterans | First Responders

Specialties & Clinical Focus

  • Contextual Therapy
  • EMDR
  • Solution-Focused
  • Family Systems
  • Trauma/PTSD
  • Narrative
  • Collaborative Language Systems
  • ACT

 

My Approach

Traumatic experiences and loss—whether sudden or cumulative—can disrupt one’s sense of identity, safety, and trust in the world, others, or oneself. To begin to process what happens next, we face the disruption of the life we planned. This may feel like a loss of purpose, an existential crisis, or difficulty finding motivation for simple, everyday tasks. We may begin to question our place and belongingness in the world. 

Using contextual therapy with EMDR we can rediscover meaning, build safety, and trust following life altering events through understanding how your personal history has impacted the patterns and processes occurring in the present. 

Education

  • Master of Arts | Marriage and Family Therapy | 2025
  • Doctor of Dental Surgery | Ohio State University College of Dentistry | 2008
  • Bachelor of Science | Oglethorpe University | 1998

Accepting New Clients

Fri | Sat | Sun via Telehealth

Check out my Psychology Today