Ginelle Krummey (she/her/hers)

Having read original sources from developers of this model, I find Narrative Therapy is the best compliment to my feminist identity. This model prompts us to challenge our concrete understandings of the world, and invites nuance into our interpretation of stories. I practice NT as a way to access traumas and triumphs in life, a way to identify problems in your life that are not inherent to who you are. NT gives us the opportunity to look at the origins of beliefs that cause upset emotions.

Ask another Feminist therapist for their outline of what it is, and the answer better be different! This is a theoretical framework that allows choice, freedom, and empowerment. Principles of my feminist therapy include curiosity, respect, consent, worthiness, advocacy, and disrupting power dynamics. Emphasis on harm reduction and safety navigating the world. This framework brings sociocultural context into the room, and the ways we are impacted by our society’s pressures.

ACT is a beautiful reflection of what happens when you take thoughts, emotions, and behavior, and spin them into beliefs, values, and committed action. Our focus with ACT is transitioning from engaging in what is known as the struggle-suffer cycle, to taking committed action in the awareness-acceptance cycle. It’s kindof like scientists and Buddhists got together and wrote a bunch of metaphors.

I completed a one year counseling internship at Buncombe County’s rape crisis and prevention center: OurVOICE. The year I spent serving survivors in their healing process was rewarding beyond measure. I prepared by studying current research on the process that allows healing from trauma to happen. It was an honor and a pleasure to witness people returning to themselves. Today, my practice is dedicated to the strength of survivors.

In my 10 years serving 8+ populations, I got an understanding of the way Burnout and Compassion Fatigue syndromes show up for people in human services. I provide informative talks in the community on this subject, as helping professionals are underserved. The focus is on developing sustaining practices that help them stay in positions they love longer, gain power in intervening in their own burnout cycles, and experience outcomes like Compassion Satisfaction and Post-traumatic Growth.

I consider this focus an opportunity to take a developmental approach. There are certain challenges we begin seeking at “normal” times in our lives, that result in some drastic transition states. I seek to look at a person’s life story and hear where the interruptions took place in their development, giving us a guide for what tasks may need recuperation, and what new challenges are on the horizon. I’m always pleased to zoom out to the big picture of life, as we see so often focused in tight.

In the course of each person’s therapeutic work is a stage beyond stabilization and reorganization, and that is expansion. This is not a linear process. Growth can be happening alongside the other stages, and it is a key component to steadying the changes people make throughout therapy. I am honored to facilitate and witness the growth of those I serve.