Terilynn Culverhouse, LPC
Starting therapy takes courage. Inviting another person into the parts of your life that feel painful, confusing, overwhelming, or deeply personal is no small thing, and I never take that trust lightly.
I believe you are the expert on your own life. My role is not to tell you who you should become or to treat you as though you need to be “fixed.” Even when it may be difficult to recognize in yourself, you already possess an incredible capacity for resilience, healing, and growth. Therapy gives us an opportunity to uncover those capacities together, understand what may be getting in the way, and begin letting go of patterns that are no longer serving you.
I work with children ages five and older, adolescents, adults, and families experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, personality disorders, self-esteem difficulties, family conflict, and relationship challenges. Because people are complex, I don’t believe therapy should look exactly the same for everyone. Your experiences, relationships, strengths, needs, and goals guide the work we do together.
My approach is collaborative, trauma-informed, attachment-focused, and experiential. I am interested not only in what you are struggling with, but also in how your experiences have shaped the ways you think, feel, relate to others, and understand yourself. Sometimes the ways we learned to cope were exactly what we needed at an earlier point in our lives. Therapy can help us recognize when those same patterns are no longer helping us move toward the life and relationships we want.
I have advanced training in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), an approach that places the therapeutic relationship at the center of the healing process. Rather than only talking about emotions from a distance, AEDP helps us slow down and experience what is happening in the present moment with curiosity and compassion. Difficult emotions do not have to be faced alone. Together, we can make room for experiences that may have felt too overwhelming, painful, or complicated to process on your own and discover what becomes possible when you feel genuinely supported in doing so.
My work with children and families is also deeply relational. Through my training in Level One Theraplay® and the Marschak Interaction Method (MIM), I use attachment-focused and developmentally appropriate interventions to help strengthen the relationship between children and their caregivers. Through playful, shared experiences, families can build trust, increase connection, strengthen self-esteem, and rediscover moments of joy with one another.
I also incorporate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) when practical strategies can help clients recognize unhelpful patterns of thinking, develop new ways of responding, and build tools they can use outside the therapy room. I don’t approach these therapies as separate formulas to apply to a person. Instead, I draw from them thoughtfully based on what you need, where you are in the therapeutic process, and what we are trying to accomplish together.
I am a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor (CPCS), Partner, and Clinical Director of Discovery Counseling’s Zebulon location, where I have the privilege of supporting both our clients and the clinicians who care for them. As a CPCS, I provide clinical supervision and help developing counselors strengthen their clinical judgment, deepen their therapeutic skills, and grow into their own identities as clinicians. As a clinical leader, I value creating a practice where therapists remain curious, continue developing their craft, and provide thoughtful, compassionate care that honors the individuality of every person who walks through our doors.
You do not have to arrive in therapy knowing exactly what is wrong, why you feel the way you do, or what needs to change. We can discover that together. My hope is that therapy becomes a place where you can understand yourself with greater compassion, reconnect with strengths that may have become difficult to see, and gradually move from simply getting through life toward experiencing it with greater clarity, peace, connection, and a stronger sense that the life you are creating truly belongs to you.