EMILY ANN PETERSON
MBA, MS-CMHC, LMHCA-pendingHi there! I’m Emily Ann. I enjoy working with a wide variety of clients: adults, teens (13+), couples/relationships, families, business partners, and groups. I’m (pre)licensed in Washington State as a Mental Health Counseling Associate (LMHCA-pending), practicing under supervision. I offer clinical mental health counseling*, coaching, support groups, workshops, and trainings.
*Available to WA State Residents only
Quick Info:
Education: Master’s in Executive Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (MS-CMHC)
Licensure & Supervision: Washington State LMHCA-pending, National Provider Identifier 1205712353; Supervised by Jessica M. Shook, LMHC (WA #LH60176936)
Certifications: Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP), Grief-Informed Professional (CGP), Trauma & Resilience Life Coach (TRLC), Psychological First Aid (PFA)
Specialized Populations Served
Whether you’re navigating a major life transition, struggling with the weight of unfulfilled potential, or simply trying to find your way back to yourself, I am deeply committed to serving diverse communities with cultural humility, specialized training, expertise, and lived experience.
Survivors of Trauma
Including those from adverse childhood experiences, high-control systems (religious trauma), or complex relational dynamics.
High-Performance Professionals
First responders, veterans, government workers, healthcare workers, entrepreneurs, and creatives; they all navigate high-pressure situations, chronic stress, burnout, and other workplace challenges.
Neurodivergent Individuals
For those who identify with ADHD, AuDHD, ASD, Autism, learning differences, and cognitive difficulties, we will work with your neurology, not against it.
LGBTQIA+ & BIPOC Communities
I truly enjoy beginning our work together by exploring who you are, according to *you,* not assuming who you are according to others. It is a joy to provide affirming care that honors your identity and lived experience, whatever that may be.
Non-Traditional Relationships & Workers
I am kink-aware, sex-positive, body-positive, and polyamorous-affirming. This applies to relationship constellations, families of all shapes and sizes, and workers who deserve respect, recognition, therapeutic security, and discretion.
Three Ways to Work with Emily Ann
To ensure you receive the most effective support, I keep my services transparent and distinct. Clinical Counseling* and Coaching are separate service offerings. To maintain ethical clarity for clients' benefit and ensure adherence to professional standards, we will not switch between these two frameworks within a single engagement. New clients begin by choosing one that best fits their current needs:
Clinical Counseling*
Focus: Healing past trauma, understanding root causes, mental health diagnoses, regulating emotions in the present day
If you desire to heal or regain functionality, we’ll engage in Clinical Counseling.* This is a deep, supportive space where, together, we understand the roots of your present-day challenges, however they’re showing up (e.g., family dynamics, relationship struggles, workplace barriers).
Sometimes, a client’s symptoms might indicate the need for an official mental health diagnosis (e.g., ADHD, anxiety, or depression). Ultimately, our time together will be spent collaborating to build emotional resilience so you can navigate your current life with stability.
*Due to the clinical and therapeutic nature of this offering, I provide clinical counseling only to residents of WA State.
Coaching
Focus: future-oriented strategy, action plans, goal achievement, learning new skills, performance optimization, accountability
If you’re ready to grow forward in your life, career, relationships, or resilience, we’ll engage in Coaching. Here, focus entirely on the “how” and “what’s next.” These sessions are designed for those who have either completed the deep emotional work or already maintain clinical support from a licensed clinician.
Clients typically seek out these sessions when they need practical accountability and logistical clarity. In these sessions, we define your desired future, strategize next steps, and I hold you accountable to the actions required to get there. We can also focus on building or learning new skills, optimizing performance, and turning aspirations into a tangible reality.
Groups & Workshops
Focus: community connection, skill-building through peer support, scalable learning, collective growth
If you’re ready to expand beyond one-on-one support of counseling and coaching, we’ll leverage the power of group experiences & community. These sessions allow you to learn from both my expertise and the lived experiences of others facing similar challenges. In group settings, such as workshops, support groups, or book circles, we’ll move beyond individual analysis to explore shared patterns, collective strategies, and activities.
Attendees typically leave with actionable tools, a sense of belonging, and a broader perspective of their own journey. These are ideal for folks who want to accelerate their growth through accountability or desire structured education.
Note: Group sizes and specific topics vary by season; email hello@jupiterpines.com to book a workshop for your organization.
Sessions With Emily Ann
This is Freddie. He’s on “Support Staff” here at Jupiter Pines Counseling. Don’t let his lack of eyes fool you; he keeps watch on the clinical clock and is known to promptly check in at the end of virtual sessions. (It’s uncanny, truly!)
✦ Collaborative & Creative: Our time together is an active, yet calm conversation that typically involves lots of metaphor, humor, and curiosity.
✦ Flexible & Adaptable: Whether we meet in my private Tacoma office or securely online, the focus remains on you.
✦ Tailored to You: Every session is shaped to your needs, goals, and current stressors, adjust your trajectory as needed or as desired.
✦ Open-Minded: Sessions use a curiosity-centric approach to reveal new insights into your experiences and life patterns.
✦ Zero AI Tools: For your utmost protection, I’m committed to keeping sessions and clinical notes free from artificial intelligence.
✦ Value Mapping: We use your personal values to build a roadmap for your future, so your next steps feel the way you want them to.
✦ Secure & Confidential: Your space is a judgment-free zone where you can speak freely. FYI: Swearing is very welcome (and likely on my part!)
✦ Goal-Oriented & Transparent: We move at your pace, focusing on practical skills and meaningful change from week to week.
✦ Strengths-Based: I help you identify your existing resources and build upon them to strengthen your resilience, so that challenges can feel easier.
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feeling unable to launch new projects or move forward with goals
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making it hard to focus on work, school, relationships, or daily tasks due to brain fog or executive dysfunction
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including decisions to change industries, transition from employment to entrepreneurship, or redefine professional identity.
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the kind that feels impossible to manage, particularly when triggered by workplace or life demands, high-stakes deadlines, or financial instability.
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partners, spouses, family members, friends, or colleagues; conflicts over boundaries, communication styles, or co-parenting logistics
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navigating toxic bosses/co-workers/work environments, recovering from a specific incident of harassment or bullying, or managing chronic high-productivity or processing the aftermath of layoffs.
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(including PTSD and complex trauma/CPTSD) that affect your sense of safety, trust, and daily functioning in social or professional settings
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particularly regarding neurodivergence (ADHD, AuDHD, ASD, Autism), LGBTQIA+ experiences, or religious trauma/spiritual distress (e.g., high-control organizations, cults) or vocation (e.g., career pivots, job hunting) or in the wake of ambiguous grief (e.g., chronic/terminal illness, tragedy, loss).
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from "masking" or pretending to be high-functioning or interested and engaged, but rapidly reaching the end of your capacity to sustain the performance and not fess up to how burnt out and non-functional or checked-out you actually are. Also, dump trucks of (self-)doubt.
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particularly the kind that’s complicated, ambiguous, multi-dimensional, unrelenting, and raw, whether from death, divorce, loss of a job, (lack of) medical diagnosis, or the end of a long-term relationship.
When Clients Often Seek Support
Life can feel heavy, chaotic, confusing, and “too much” at times. Many of my clients come to me when they are struggling with emotions and symptoms such as:
BIOGRAPHY
My path to clinical mental health counseling and coaching bridges the worlds of creativity, consumer behavior, data science, and real-world experience.
For many years, I was a cello teacher to students of all ages, a recording musician, and a nationally touring singer-songwriter. After receiving a career-halting degenerative neurological diagnosis of essential tremors in my hands, I hosted an interview-based podcast, which later became the title of my book, Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous (2018).
I soon found myself speaking at conferences and Fortune 500 companies while consulting with creatives, entrepreneurs, and tech startups, leveraging my Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA). Continuing this work, I later earned my Master of Business Administration (MBA), focusing on the psychology of marketing, consumer behavior, ecofeminism, and the power of cult influence, especially the long-term effects of narcissistic leadership.
Prior to completing my Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (MS-CMHC), I taught data & decision modeling at the university level, received training from the FBI in behavioral threat assessment and cybersecurity, and was trained as a volunteer Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to be a voice for children in the courtroom.
In many ways, this work feels like returning to my first career. Similar to a musical instrument, one’s relationship to mental health is practiced, paused, improved, and strengthened. It can be quite physical, arduous, even athletic! Of course, as with music, mental health involves nuance, subtlety, intricacy, and complexity. Yet, I’ve experienced and witnessed the countless ways that exploring one’s mental health can be enjoyable, and filled with laughter, even when life feels sucky and sad!
Much like practicing an instrument, every day reveals new layers of relating to oneself and others, more internal universes to explore, and new directions to expand. It is such a cherished honor to be invited into a client's shared spaces of expansion and curiosity.
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✦ Trauma Recovery: PTSD, C-PTSD
✦ High-Control Relationships, Organizations, & Systems, Religious Trauma
✦ Depression
✦ Anxiety
✦ Neurodiversity: ADD/ADHD, ASD, Autism, AuDHD
✦ LGBTQIA+ Issues
✦ Work Stress & Career Burnout
✦ Sexual Health: Identity, Desire Discrepancy, Kink Exploration, and Deconstructing Purity Culture
✦ Loneliness & Building Community
✦ Grief, Loss, & Life Transitions
✦ Existential Crisis
✦ Men’s Issues
✦ Sexual Abuse
✦ Compassion Fatigue
✦ Military & Veteran’s Issues
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✦ CCTP: Clinical Trauma Professional - Professional Education Systems Institute (2026); treatments and modalities for trauma recovery and building resilience
✦ CGP: Grief-Informed Professional - Professional Education Systems Institute (2026); evidence-based treatments for multi-layered loss and complex grief
✦ CTSS: Trauma Support Specialist – Arizona Trauma Institute (2022); trauma & resilience strategies
✦ PFA: Psychological First Aid – Johns Hopkins University (2020); crisis response & trauma-informed care
✦ Trauma & Resiliency Life Coach (CTRLC) – Arizona Trauma Institute (2022); trauma-informed motivational interviewing and coaching
✦ Certified Scrum Master (CSM®) – Scrum Alliance (2022); agile project management & business operations
✦ Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) – Training (2021); behavioral coaching & leadership development
✦ Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) – Training (2021); cognitive restructuring & decision-making for business professionals
✦ SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals – International Council for Small Business (2020); ethical entrepreneurship & corporate sustainability
✦ Suzuki Cello Instructor (Books 1-4) – Suzuki Association of the Americas (2013); strength-based pedagogical techniques
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✦ ACA: American Counseling Association
✦ AMHCA: American Mental Health Counselors Association
✦ WMHCA: Washington Mental Health Counselors Association
✦ ACBS: Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
✦ AASECT: American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, & Therapists
✦ WPATH: World Professional Association for Transgender Health
✦ AAPB: Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback
✦ ICSA: International Cultic Studies Association
What’s Next?
Choose Your Own Adventure!What to Expect as a ClientIf you’re wondering what happens next, would like to discuss your goals, or want to see if we’re the right fit, I offer complimentary consultations. Before we meet, you can review our client policies and an overview of some typical phases of working together.
Privacy & Digital Security Ensuring confidentiality, privacy, and data security for my clients is foundational to providing emotional security, consistency, autonomy, and trust. Jupiter Pines Counseling uses zero AI tools in sessions, selects HIPAA-compliant technology, and has strict digital protocols to protect your private information.
Fees & Budgeting Clarity Financial clarity is a cornerstone of building therapeutic trust. Jupiter Pines Counseling offers four flexible financial pathways to becoming a client.
I am not paneled with any insurance company; however, clients can use their out-of-network benefits and seek reimbursement.