Therapy for Women in Cary & throughout NC
Rediscover yourself, your values, & your purpose
Do you follow the Unspoken Rules of Womanhood?
Look sweet. Be sweet. Do all the things.
The relentless expectations of being a women can be crippling. Whether it’s the self-imposed pressure of perfection or the culturally prescribed picture of the mythical superwoman, you’ve learned you’ll never measure up. It throws you out of balance-mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. You’ve forgotten who you are, what you believe, what you value. It’s been lost in the mire of serving everyone but yourself. Counseling specifically for you as a woman can help!
PERFECT. PERFORM. RINSE. REPEAT.
Is it any wonder why we struggle with our memory, worry, excessive guilt, overwhelm, and worthlessness?
It’s time to give yourself a seat at the table-
Ditch the perfection & impossible standards.
Quiet your internal bully.
Reclaim your life
You’re Carrying A Lot.
You Don’t Have to Keep Doing it Alone.
It's common for women to come to us feeling like they've lost themselves. Somewhere in the middle of taking care of everyone and everything, they stopped being able to answer a simple question: what do you need right now?
Maybe you've felt that way for a long time. Maybe something shifted recently. Either way, you don't have to have the words for it yet. Therapy is a place to figure that out, and we're really good at helping you get there.
Be Still is a local, woman-owned and operated practice.
Every therapist has dedicated her career to the helping women experience freedom, purpose, & joy. We get it because we’ve lived it too.
Common Reasons Women Seek Counseling
Women come to counseling for many reasons. Often, these experiences overlap and build gradually over time.
You may be in a season where life no longer looks the way it did.
Children leaving home or becoming more independent
Retirement or approaching retirement
Having a baby and navigating different seasons of your children’s lives
Career changes, layoffs, or questioning long-term direction
Moving from middle to high school or high school to college
Realizing that much of life has been oriented around caring for others, losing yourself in the process
Unhappiness in marriage, feeling unsure of how to move forward
Navigating fertility and/or pregnancy loss
Counseling can support you as you explore identity, purpose, and what a meaningful chapter may hold.
Life Transitions & Reinvention
You may feel tense or on edge most of the time, even when you can’t put your finger on what’s wrong:
Racing thoughts
Difficulty relaxing
Trouble sleeping
A persistent sense of “feeling off”
Some women describe feeling as though they are holding everything together while quietly unraveling inside. Therapy can help calm the nervous system, reduce mental noise, and support new ways of coping.
Anxiety, Worry, Panic, OCD, & Constant Overwhelm
You may feel disconnected or dissatisfied in your relationship, unsure of how things shifted.
Emotional distance
Ongoing tension or conflict
Feeling unseen or misunderstood
Feeling restless or uncertain about your future together
Counseling can help you explore patterns, clarify needs, and understand what may be happening beneath the surface.
Relationship Dynamics & Marital Strain
Loss of Self, Identity, & Self-Worth
Many women have spent years focused on caring for others. Over time, this can lead to feeling invisible, uncertain about personal needs or desires, or disconnected from your truest self.
Losing touch with who you are beneath the roles you carry
Feeling invisible or overlooked
Uncertainty about your needs, desires, or preferences
Difficulty making decisions for yourself
A sense of emptiness or disconnection from your identity
Measuring your worth by how much you do for others
Therapy can help you rediscover your voice, preferences, and sense of self.
You may feel deeply tired…even after rest
Never-ending pressure
Emotional and mental fatigue
Feeling numb or depleted
Losing interest in things that once mattered
Counseling offers space to slow down and begin restoring emotional energy.
Stress, Burnout, & Emotional Exhaustion
Grief is not limited to death:
The failing health of a loved one
Divorce
Loss of physical or mental health
Miscarriage or infertility
Estrangement or relational loss
Loss of expected life paths
Empty nesting
Therapy provides a place to acknowledge these losses, tend to the pain with care, and create a new normal.
Grief, Loss, & Unprocessed Pain
Many women seek counseling because they are weary from carrying unresolved experiences.
Childhood neglect or abuse
Religious or spiritual harm
Being on the front lines as a therapist, healthcare worker, first responder, or military member
Domestic violence as an adult or witnessing it as a child
Medical trauma
Relational trauma, including narcissistic abuse and workplace trauma
Racial and ethnic trauma
You may not always use the word “trauma,” yet you sense that something from the past continues to shape your present. Trauma-informed counseling can gently support processing these experiences and reduce their impact.
Trauma & Past Wounds
Often, women come to us with knowledge about God, but feel they’re lacking a living, breathing relationship with Him. We work with women who are strong in their faith, weak in their faith, doubting their faith, or are not interested in exploring their faith.
Explore where your faith is at, what you believe, and move toward where you want it to be
Process your current struggles and past experiences in light of the Gospel
Basing your identity, value, and worth on the truth of the Gospel
Wondering if God is real, if He’s good, and if He loves you
Processing the effects of growing up in a rigid or rules-based home or culture
Learning to live out your faith
Counseling from a Christian perspective can help you move from bondage, fear, and worthlessness to love, freedom, and joy.
Spiritual Questions & Christian Faith-Integrated Counseling
meet your therapist
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Shannon Salter | LCMHCA | PMH-C
Girls 16 & Up & Women
trauma | miscarriage | infertility | anxiety | depression | relationships | frontline professionals
Immediate afternoon & evening availability
Shannon has a way of helping women carry the things they have been holding alone for far too long. Whether she is sitting with a new mother, a woman navigating infertility or miscarriage, or someone trying to make sense of trauma, she creates a space where people feel deeply seen rather than rushed or fixed. Her warmth, insight, and ability to find hope in the middle of hard stories help women reconnect with themselves and begin moving toward healing with confidence.
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Pat Lawson | LCSWA
Women
trauma | ministry leaders & helping professionals | crises of faith | chronic illness/pain | anxiety | depression | grief & loss | relationships
Pat has a waitlist
Pat helps women untangle the pain they have carried for years, especially when trauma, caregiving, chronic illness, grief, or spiritual wounds have quietly reshaped their lives. She sits with people in the hard places, offering both compassion and wisdom, while helping them rediscover their voice, their strength, and what matters most to them. Women often leave feeling more grounded in who they are, more confident in where they are going, and less alone in the journey.
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Beth Carrington Brown | LCSW
Teens 16 & Up, Women, & Men
life transitions | relationships | body image | perimenopause/menopause | self-worth/self-esteen | depression | anxiety
Beth has a waitlist
Beth helps women reconnect with themselves after years of carrying responsibilities, expectations, and pressure that slowly pulled them away from who they are. Whether she is supporting someone through anxiety, shifting relationships, low self-worth, life transitions, or the emotional and physical changes of perimenopause, she creates space for women to feel understood while also helping them move forward in practical and meaningful ways. Clients often leave feeling more confident in their decisions, more grounded in their identity, and more connected to the life they want to build.
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Ashley DeArcia | LCMHCA| ADHD Coach
Girls 9 & Up & Women
anxiety | panic disorders | OCD | ADHD | Guilt/Shame | self-worth | Life transitions
Ashley has a waitlist
Ashley helps women and girls make sense of the pressure, self-doubt, and anxiety that can quietly shape everyday life. Whether someone is struggling with OCD, ADHD, panic, perfectionism, or feeling stuck in a season of uncertainty, she creates a space where they can stop performing, start being honest, and figure out what they need moving forward. Her warmth, resilience, and ability to connect through both lived experience and clinical insight help clients feel understood while building the confidence to trust themselves again.
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Kristin Nakhla | Founder | LCSW | Certified Mindfulness Teacher
Kristin is not taking new clients at this time. If you are a previous client, please reach out to her directly.
Kristin helps women step out of the exhaustion of overthinking, people-pleasing, guilt, and carrying far more than they were ever meant to hold alone. Through a blend of clinical insight, mindfulness, faith, and lived experience, she helps women understand the deeper patterns shaping their lives so they can stop surviving on autopilot and begin living with greater peace, purpose, and freedom. Clients often leave feeling more connected to themselves, more grounded in their values, and more confident in who they are becoming.
Be Still is the best fit for…
Women who feel like they've lost themselves in the roles they play for everyone else.
Women who feel middle age has “lifted the veil” and are now questioning their purpose, their identity, & their relationships.
Women who have been trying to push through on their own and are finally ready to try something different.
Women navigating anxiety, depression, grief, burnout, or something they haven't named yet.
Women in the middle of a major life change: divorce, marriage, an empty nest, a career shift, or a move.
Women with a complicated relationship with their body, their self-worth, or their identity.
Women carrying relational wounds, old trauma, or patterns they keep repeating and can't seem to break.
imagine if you…
Nourished your mind, your body, & your spiritual life
Developed close, meaningful relationships
Felt empowered to have a voice and use it
Identified your needs
Discovered your identity, your values, & your purpose
we want you to know
Real, meaningful change is possible
Be Still is female therapist-owned and operated. Each counselor at our practice has dedicated their career to the empowerment of women through therapy. We cater all of our research, training, and expertise to their special needs. From hormones, postpartum, and aging to gender expectations and cultural norms, we recognize the specific needs of women and address them in every therapy session.
How Counseling can Support Women
Counseling can help you:
Identify patterns of thought and behavior that are limiting your peace and potential
Learn to distinguish between truth and harmful internal narratives
Develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and others
Recognize how your experiences live in your body
Understand how past experiences shape present responses
Build practical skills for anxiety, depression, stress, and relationships
Explore the connection between thoughts, emotions, body, and breath
Learn and understand who you are and develop a hopeful vision of your future
Live a life of freedom, joy, and peace
The work is collaborative, paced to your needs, and grounded in compassion.
Therapy for women with Be Still is…
Raising women up
Recognizing the effects of gender norms of women’s mental health
Understanding the enormous mental load on women
Trauma informed
Therapy for women with Be Still is not…
Bashing men
Perpetuating the unhealthy social expectations of women
Ignoring the role of hormones on mental health
Continuing to be the martyrs of our families
if you’ve been looking for a sign, here it is…
Therapy specializing in women can help you live in the present, figure out who you are again, and help you identify and live in alignment with your values
Women are too powerful to be put in a box, relegated to a small life where we’re not seen, heard, valued, or loved. We must learn to take up space without feeling guilty. We must embrace our value. We must be empowered to live the life God has for us.
It is common for women to come to us feeling they have lost themselves while spending years taking care of everyone but themselves. When asked, most women cannot answer “What do you need in this moment?” Counseling can help you identify who you are and acknowledge your values and needs.
Many women’s have a hate-hate relationship with their bodies. Often, a woman’s mind feels completely disconnected with her body and they don’t even realize it. Counseling can help change your relationship with your body and reconnect your mind to your body. Rather than absolute self hatred, you can begin recognizing what is working well rather than focusing on what you dislike. You can begin to extend kindness to your body for all it has carried you through.
It’s easy to feel alone as a women. Childrearing, careers, school, and spouses take up all of our energy, and there’s not much left for friendship. Our past often makes us wonder how to make friends, trust new relationships, or have meaningful conversations. Counseling can help you recognize challenging relationship patterns and replace them with trustworthy, meaningful friendships.
Often, women come to us with much intellectual knowledge about God, but feel they’re lacking a living, breathing relationship with Him. This may be because Christianity or the Bible has been weaponized by people in power. This may be because they have simply been taught all about God, but have never nurtured a relationship with Him. Therapy specializing in women with Be Still is a safe space to explore where your faith is at and move toward where you want it to be.
What to expect
The first few sessions are about getting to know you. We ask a lot of questions to get to know your story, not just your symptoms. From there, we build a plan that's specific to your goals, your pace, and your actual life.
We get to know all of you, not just your diagnosis. Your feelings about your body, your relationships, your childhood, and your faith, if that's something you want to bring in. We use evidence-based approaches, including CBT, ACT, somatic and polyvagal therapy, EMDR, and insight-oriented work, and we tailor everything to what fits you best.
Sessions are 50 minutes and typically weekly. In-person sessions are available at our Cary, NC office. Telehealth is available for women throughout North Carolina.
Have questions?
Have Any Questions? Send Us A Message!
faqs
Common questions about therapy for women
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We specialize in women because that’s who we’re passionate about! We feel we can best relate to the lived experience of women, and want to devote our time and attention to what best benefits them.
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Hormones, gender expectations, trauma histories, pregnancy histories, body image…all of these struggles are specific to women, and not just anyone can be an expert. We hone our expertise on women so that we can provide the very best care. It’s what you deserve!
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Absolutely. It’s imperative that any counselor specializing in the care of women be trauma-informed. Whether it’s physical, sexual, emotional, or spiritual abuse, we seek to be a trauma-sensitive environment.
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Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation. We’ll talk on the phone and get a better understanding of your needs and determine if we’re a good fit.
In-Person Counseling in Cary, NC & Secure Telehealth Across North Carolina
We offer in-person counseling at our Cary office. We also provide secure telehealth counseling for women and girls throughout North Carolina.
faqs
Common barriers for women seeking therapy.
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We get it! Here’s another way to think about it. Will there ever be enough time and energy, or do you need to make bold choices now so that you can move toward the life you want?
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We offer both daytime and evening sessions. Many employers are flexible to allow employees an hour off for therapy as their lunch hour.
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You’re not alone there! Many cultures frown upon therapy; however, a question to ask yourself is “if not me, then who?” Who will be the change agent in your family? Do I want to perpetuate these patterns in future generations?
ready when you are
You deserve this
There’s no perfect time to start. There’s only now, and a version of you on the other side of this work who knows who she is, what she needs, and has more room to breathe. We’d be honored to be a part of that.
Learn More
