Meet the People
Behind the Work

Clinical Background

Denise holds a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Colorado Christian University, completing her counseling practicum in 2019. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and holds certification in Neuropsychotherapy (NPT-C).

Her clinical work is grounded in the belief that change happens when the underlying patterns maintaining a problem are identified and addressed directly. She does not offer generic coping strategies. She builds clinical capacity from the root.

Areas of Focus

Clinical Methods

Denise uses a combination of approaches calibrated to the client's specific presentation. No single method is applied uniformly. The clinical map comes first, the methods follow from it.

Gottman Method: Level 1 & 2 Certified

Denise has completed both levels of Gottman Method training, which she uses extensively in couples work. She combines this framework with attachment theory to help couples build genuine friendship, communicate effectively, and navigate conflict in ways that repair rather than erode.

The Gottman Method is research-based, not intuition-based. For Denise it is not a loose set of principles she references. It is a specific clinical framework she applies with fidelity to the research it is built on.

Outside the Office

Denise is a proud native Texan who spent over a decade teaching High School English before pursuing counseling. She and her family lived in Montana for seven years, a season she describes as formative, before returning to Texas to be closer to family and pursue counseling full time.

She has been married for over 15 years and has three active sons. She enjoys traveling, attending her sons' games and activities, listening to podcasts, and reading. Most of all, she values quiet reflection, genuine conversation, and the kind of connection that does not require performance.

Work With Denise

Clinical Background

Madison holds a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Texas at Tyler, completed in 2023. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate under the supervision of Christina Neal, LPC-S.

Her clinical approach is built on the conviction that people move naturally toward healing when they feel genuinely safe. She works to create that safety not as a precondition for the work but as part of the work itself.

Areas of Focus

Clinical Methods

Sport Psychology and Athletic Performance

Madison is a former collegiate athlete who found that sport created a natural opening for deeper, more meaningful conversations about identity, pressure, and self-worth. That insight has shaped her clinical work with athletes at every level.

She is currently in the process of becoming a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and holds Student Athlete Mental Wellness certification. Her EMDR training extends into peak performance contexts, not just trauma processing.

She works with athletes at UT Tyler, TJC, and across the East Texas competitive community on performance anxiety, identity, injury recovery, and the mental side of sustained high performance.

Outside the Office

Madison spent nearly a decade working as a Mechanical Engineer before pursuing counseling full time. She describes the shift as a return to what drew her to sport in the first place: the belief that genuine connection changes people.

She is a former collegiate athlete, a reader, a movie watcher, and the proud owner of Bash, who presumably has strong opinions about her work schedule.

Work With Madison