HEATHER STRADER, MS, LMHC

Welcome to The Holistic Counseling Center

Healing is a journey and it begins with feeling safe, heard, and truly seen.

I’m Heather Strader, a holistic psychotherapist dedicated to supporting you on your path toward greater wholeness, balance, and peace. Whether you’re struggling with trauma, anxiety, relationship challenges, or simply seeking more connection to yourself and the life you want to live, this is a place where you can come as you are.

Here, therapy is more than talk. It’s an invitation to explore your mind, body, and spirit integrating powerful evidence based practices like EMDR and trauma-informed care, alongside holistic healing tools such as ThetaHealing, meditation, and somatic work.

I believe healing happens in the gentle balance of science and spirit, mind and body, heart and intuition. Together, we’ll uncover the root of your struggles, honor your unique story, and create a safe space for transformation and growth.

You don’t have to carry your pain alone. Let’s walk this path with compassion, courage, and hope.

About Heather Strader, LMHC

Founder of The Holistic Counseling Center

I’m a licensed mental health counselor, holistic practitioner, and someone who truly believes that healing happens when we feel seen not just intellectually, but emotionally, physically, and spiritually. My approach integrates evidence based therapy with intuitive, body centered healing modalities to support deep and lasting transformation.

Before becoming a therapist, I spent over a decade immersed in the healing arts. I’m a certified yoga teacher, a third degree Reiki practitioner, and have advanced training in Healing Touch, breathwork, and meditation. I’m also a certified ThetaHealing® practitioner a modality that works with the subconscious and energetic body to identify and shift limiting beliefs.

My work is deeply informed by somatic practices, inner child healing, nervous system regulation, guided imagery, and spiritual integration. These modalities have shaped the way I view pain and healing: not as problems to fix, but as invitations to reconnect with your inner wisdom and wholeness.

As a trauma-informed therapist, I’m trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and I specialize in working with individuals navigating anxiety, grief, life transitions, identity exploration, and the lasting effects of trauma. My clinical foundation is rooted in psychodynamic theory, attachment-based work, and mind-body approaches that support emotional resilience and self-trust.

In addition to individual therapy, I work with couples married or not who are seeking deeper connection, clarity, and emotional repair. I bring a psychoanalytic lens to relationship work, along with my training in the Gottman Method, to help partners understand their patterns, rebuild trust, and communicate with more honesty and empathy.

I also work with teens and adolescents, offering a grounded, safe space for self discovery, emotional regulation, and navigating the complexity of growing up in today’s world. I tailor my holistic approach to meet them where they are blending traditional talk therapy with mindfulness, creativity, and nervous system tools that help them reconnect with themselves and their inner voice.

You won’t find a “blank slate” approach here. I show up fully present, compassionate, intuitive and I invite you to do the same. My clients often tell me they feel deeply safe, understood, and empowered in our work together. Therapy with me isn’t about diagnosing what’s broken it’s about uncovering what’s buried and gently guiding you back to your whole, wise self.

If something here speaks to you, I welcome you to reach out. Whether you’re just gathering information or you’re feeling ready to begin, I’m here to connect. I respond to all messages personally and with care.

EMDR Therapy

A trauma informed, body mind approach to healing

If you’re carrying pain that feels stuck whether it’s from a big traumatic event or subtle, ongoing experiences that shaped your self-worth EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can help you move it, process it, and heal it at the root.

In my practice, EMDR isn’t a rigid protocol. It’s a gentle, collaborative, and deeply intuitive process that helps your brain and body reprocess painful memories and beliefs so they no longer hold the same emotional charge. You won’t have to “re-live” your trauma or force anything. We go at a pace that honors your nervous system and respects your capacity.

My approach to EMDR is holistic. That means I weave in breathwork, grounding tools, somatic awareness, and spiritual insight when it supports your healing. EMDR is powerful on its own but when it’s held in a safe, attuned space, it becomes even more transformative.

I use EMDR to help clients work through:

• Childhood and attachment wounds

• Grief and loss

• Medical trauma

• Relationship pain and betrayal

• Anxiety and panic

• Chronic shame or self-doubt

• Emotional aftermath of narcissistic or relational abuse

You don’t have to go back into the past alone. This work is about clearing space, not re-traumatizing. It’s about giving your body and mind the chance to release what’s no longer yours to carry and gently reclaiming your peace, self-trust, and clarity.

ThetaHealing®

Energetic healing for the subconscious mind and soul

So much of what we carry anxiety, self-doubt, fear of abandonment, shame isn’t rooted in logic. It lives in the body and the subconscious. Sometimes, even when we know better, we still feel stuck. That’s where ThetaHealing comes in.

ThetaHealing is a meditative, intuitive healing technique that helps identify and shift the limiting beliefs stored deep in the subconscious and energetic body. Through a relaxed, grounded state known as the theta brainwave, we gently uncover the roots of emotional pain whether they stem from early life, ancestral patterns, or internalized beliefs and begin the process of release and reprogramming.

In session, this can feel like:

• Energetic clearing and grounding

• Shifting deeply held beliefs around worth, love, or fear

• Calling in insight, compassion, and clarity from within

• Reconnecting to your intuition, higher self, or spiritual sense of guidance

ThetaHealing can be integrated into therapy sessions or offered as a standalone healing experience. Some clients come specifically for this work especially if they’re craving intuitive insight, energetic release, or spiritual connection. Others find it naturally weaves into our therapeutic process when a deeper layer is ready to move.

Clients often describe it as “light,” “safe,” or “like something just lifted.” It’s never forced or prescriptive only offered when it feels aligned with your healing path.

This work is especially supportive for clients who:

• Feel stuck even after doing years of personal growth

• Are sensitive or intuitive and want to include that part of themselves in therapy

• Are interested in spiritual or energetic work but want it grounded in real, attuned care

• Carry patterns that feel inherited or hard to explain

ThetaHealing invites in more than insight it opens the door to deep shifts, clarity, and spiritual connection. It honors that healing is not just psychological, but emotional, energetic, and sacred.

Therapy for Teens & Adolescents

Helping teens feel seen, safe, and more like themselves

Being a teenager today is overwhelming and often misunderstood. Between the pressure to perform, social media noise, family dynamics, identity questions, and quiet griefs they don’t know how to name, many teens carry more than they can say.

That’s where I come in.

I work with teens and adolescents in a way that feels safe, natural, and human. My approach isn’t clinical or stiff it’s relational, intuitive, and grounded in trust. I meet each teen where they are, without pressure to open up before they’re ready. I never treat them like a problem to fix. I treat them like a whole, complex, brilliant human who may just be feeling overwhelmed, lost, anxious, stuck, or shut down and doesn’t yet have the tools or language to make sense of it all.

My background in holistic healing supports this work in a unique way. Alongside traditional talk therapy, I may bring in mindfulness, somatic tools, creative expression, nervous system work, and gentle energy-based practices to help them reconnect to themselves and feel more in control from the inside out.

Common reasons teens come to therapy with me:

• Anxiety, panic, or feeling “on edge” all the time

• Family or peer conflict

• Identity questions or self-esteem struggles

• Feeling stuck, numb, or unmotivated

• Social media pressure or comparison

• Emotional pain from divorce, trauma, or big life transitions

• Self-doubt, overthinking, or perfectionism

• Difficulty sleeping, eating, or regulating emotions

This work isn’t about forcing change. It’s about building a relationship where a teen can exhale, explore who they really are, and begin to feel safe in their own skin again.

Whether they’re talking, silent, guarded, or open I hold space with respect, curiosity, and care. Therapy with teens is sacred work, and I treat it that way.

Couples & Marriage Therapy

Where relationship becomes the path to healing, not just the goal

Every relationship carries a story and within that story are patterns, wounds, unmet needs, and moments of beauty. Whether you’re married, partnered, on the edge of separation, or simply wanting to feel more connected, couples therapy can be a space to pause, reflect, and begin again with intention.

My approach to couples work is not about fixing surface behaviors or assigning blame. It’s about going deeper understanding the unconscious dynamics, attachment wounds, and emotional legacies each partner brings into the relationship. Often, what looks like “communication issues” or conflict is actually the body’s response to old pain being reactivated in the present.

I work from a psychoanalytic and trauma-informed lens, weaving in holistic practices when appropriate. Together, we explore what’s happening beneath the surface not just what’s said, but what’s felt, feared, and longed for.

We’ll work on:

• Breaking painful cycles of disconnection or defensiveness

• Identifying core wounds that are being triggered in the relationship

• Rebuilding emotional safety, trust, and intimacy

• Strengthening communication with empathy and honesty

• Understanding each other’s nervous system, attachment style, and triggers

• Cultivating a more conscious, nourishing connection

I am also Gottman Method trained, which means I integrate tools and insights based on decades of research on what makes relationships thrive and what erodes them. But the deeper layer of my work is about honoring the truth that relationships are where our shadows surface not to punish us, but to invite healing.

Couples therapy isn’t just about staying together. It’s about coming home to yourself and to each other in a way that is honest, compassionate, and deeply human.

Whether you’re in crisis or simply wanting more closeness, this work is a space to be seen, heard, and met exactly where you are.

EMDR Intensives

Deep, focused healing — without the wait

Some wounds ask for more time. More space. More presence.

An EMDR Intensive is a powerful opportunity to move through emotional pain, trauma, or stuck patterns in a focused, supported way — without having to stretch the process over weeks or months. Instead of 50-minute sessions, we carve out extended time (half-day or full-day) to go deeper and allow your system the spaciousness it needs to process, integrate, and heal.

This format is especially helpful if you:

• Feel like you’re “on the edge” of something shifting, but weekly sessions aren’t enough

• Are processing trauma, loss, or major life transitions

• Want to accelerate healing in a specific area (relationships, anxiety, grief, etc.)

• Have done therapy before and are ready for deeper resolution

• Are short on time or coming in from out of town

We move gently, never forcefully. EMDR Intensives are not about pushing through pain — they’re about creating a safe, attuned container to let what’s ready to heal come forward. We pace with your nervous system, honor your boundaries, and integrate holistic support throughout: grounding practices, breathwork, somatic awareness, rest, and reflection.

Each intensive includes:

• A thorough pre-consultation to assess readiness and customize your focus

• Extended EMDR sessions (2.5–4.5 hours, based on your needs)

• Integration time with personalized tools for aftercare

• Optional energy healing, somatic support, or intuitive reflection if aligned

Clients often describe intensives as transformative — not because they’re rushed, but because they offer the rare gift of uninterrupted time to go inward, to feel supported, and to allow the body-mind to do what it’s ready to do.

Healing doesn’t have to take forever. Sometimes, when the space is right and the support is strong, things move.