Our Team
Kelsey Harris, M.Ed., CCLS
Areas of Focus
Children as young as 3 through adolescence
Generalized anxiety
Behavior management
Emotional regulation and expression
Frustration tolerance
Coping with medical trauma, experiences, diagnoses
Grief, especially centered around unanticipated loss
Processing past trauma or abuse
After graduating and completing her internships, she worked within two separate pediatric hospitals as a certified child life specialist. She worked for 8 years in the emergency department of two Level 1 Trauma Centers, providing psychosocial interventions to children and families experiencing new medical diagnoses, traumatic injuries, unexpected loss, and a wide array of medical emergencies. She provided emotional support to patients, siblings, parents and whole families which led to her pursuance of a counseling master’s degree. After completing her coursework, she completed her Clinical Mental Health Counseling Practicum and Internships under the supervision of Dr. Cyndi Jordan at Heartlife where she began seeing individual clients, co-leading a counseling group, and assisting with psycho-educational testing. She accepted a counseling position at HeartLife immediately after graduation to begin the journey toward counseling licensure!
Kelsey has extensive experience related to medical intervention, trauma, sudden unanticipated and anticipated death, and anxiety in children and teens. She additionally has experience in behavior management. While most of her experience is with children, she additionally has experience working with young adult clients who have chronic pain, illness, and medical trauma. Her counseling style leans more towards a Cognitive Behavioral and Person-Centered approach, where she incorporates creative outlets such as art and play into sessions as appropriate. Kelsey is passionate about helping clients understand, process and regulate emotions and behaviors.
Outside of work, you can find Kelsey cheering on Alabama football, reading a novel, or snuggling with her cats, Doc and Ky, whom she calls “The Boys.”
Kelsey Harris completed her Master of Education degree with a major in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Tennessee-Martin in August of 2022. Kelsey is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Play Therapy through the University of Memphis. Prior to her graduate studies, Kelsey graduated with two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alabama in Human Development with concentrations in Child Life and Early Child Development.
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”