Licensed Mental Health Counselor
You're not broken.
Your nervous system is overwhelmed.
If your thoughts won’t slow down, your body stays tense, or nothing you’ve tried helps you feel grounded for long, you’re not alone and you’re not failing.
You’re running a high-functioning life with a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
I provide somatic, anxiety reducing therapy for thoughtful, driven adults across Washington state who want lasting relief from anxiety and burnout.
WHAT I HELP WITH
You are someone whose body stays activated no matter what you do.
You’ve tried logic. You’ve tried journaling. You’ve tried being “less anxious.”
But your body doesn’t listen to reason.
You might be the right fit for working together if:
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You've been in therapy before and found it helpful but not transformative
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You've read books about anxiety, attachment, and trauma, and your body still feels the same
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You're a high-functioning human who looks fine on the outside and is exhausted on the inside
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You can describe your patterns better than your last therapist could, and the describing hasn't changed them
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You feel "wired but tired," collapse on weekends, and call it resting
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Your symptoms: skin, gut, cycle, sleep, are getting louder
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You're tired of being told to just relax
If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
What To Expect
Talk therapy helps, but insight alone isn’t enough.
Most people I work with already understand themselves deeply.
They don’t need “more coping skills.” They need someone who can help them work at the level where change actually happens: the nervous system.
My approach blends:
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Nervous system regulation
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Biology vs. modern life mismatch
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Attachment, stress response, and neuroception
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Practical, real-world tools you can feel in your body
We track your patterns (not just your thoughts) and build capacity in a way that feels grounded, personalized, and actually doable.
we
start
by
reframing
You’re not broken. You’re brilliantly adaptive.
Your nervous system evolved for survival in a completely different world: small groups, predictable dangers, and short bursts of actual threat like running from predators.
Modern life? It’s one giant overstimulating mess of uncertainty, social pressure, status games, and endless demands your ancient biology was never designed for.
Of course your nervous system is freaking out.
Of course you feel “fine” but wired.
Of course you’re exhausted from holding it all together.
The problem isn’t you.
It’s your nervous system trying to keep you alive.
We’re going to retrain it, safely, gently, and with actual science.
ways to work together
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Therapy for High-Performing Nervous Systems
Ongoing therapy for people who live in overdrive, burnout, shut-down, or internal chaos, even if they function well externally. We focus on nervous system health, emotional capacity, and long-term regulation. I'm in network with Premera and Aetna. Out-of-network sessions are $165. Sliding scale is available in limited circumstances.
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Your Nervous System Decoded
A one-time, structured session where we map your patterns, stress responses, survival strategies, and regulation pathways. You leave with a clear, concrete understanding of your nervous system. Decoded sessions are a flat rate of $250 and not reimbursable by insurance.
innerterrain
Where science meets soul.
innerterrain is my essay space for people who think deeply, feel intensely, and are tired of being told to just "be calm." Here, we explore what it really means to be wired for survival in a world that asks too much of the nervous system, and how to understand the biology beneath the experience.
If you’ve ever felt like insight alone wasn’t enough, like you understand your patterns but your body still responds with tension, overdrive, shutdown, or exhaustion, you’re not broken. Your system is doing what it evolved to do. 🌱
Recent popular essays include:
→ “For When You've Never Felt Normal” — explores the quiet ache of feeling different and how that feeling is a nervous-system imprint, not evidence something’s wrong with you.
→ “How a Hinge Match Ended With Me at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon” — how an online match became a mirror for nervous system survival patterns in relationships.
→ “The American Dream, My Divorce, and the Biology of Despair” — a reflection on how chasing a culturally prescribed ideal left me trapped in a painful life chapter, financially, relationally, and neurologically.
Hi, I'm Courtney
I’m a therapist, writer, and nervous system specialist based in Bellingham, WA. My work blends science, story, and real-world honesty, not clinical jargon or generic advice.
What makes my work different is that most therapy works at the level of thought, story, and insight. That's useful for some things. It's not enough for nervous system patterns that have been wired in for decades.
I work at the level your body is actually living at. We track what your nervous system is doing in real time. We build vocabulary for sensations you've never had words for. We change the state your thinking is happening in, instead of trying to think your way to a different state.
The goal isn't to feel happy all the time. It's to be in your actual life, including the hard parts, from a body that can hold what's happening without breaking down.
