Why Choose Counseling?
Counseling helps you navigate the challenging situations that life presents, whether that's tackling an emotional hurdle or healing deeper wounds. Childhood and Adult challenges that Red Clay Counseling, LLC can assist with include the following:
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Life Transitions
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Grief and Loss
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Depression
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Anxiety
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Bi-polar disorder
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Play Therapy for all ages
There are many other life-shaping issues that we all face from day to day. Red Clay Counseling can provide direction, in most of these cases, to improve your quality of life.
About Red Clay Counseling
At Red Clay Counseling, LLC, the focus is on assisting you in maximizing the quality of all aspects of your life whether you are going through an important transition or struggling to find peace and balance. In addition to traditional therapeutic approaches, I guide you through experiential and creative therapies including Accelerated Resolution Therapy especially effective in resolving serious trauma, Play Therapy for all ages, Child-Parent Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. I provide quality therapy services to individuals, couples, and families.
Donna McLemore Watkins is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist. She believes persons who are pursuing an improved quality of life are able to make cognitive and behavioral changes while developing an awareness of self and change self-defeating thoughts.
Donna found her passion for horses 27 years ago. While nurturing this passion, she was able to experience the healing power of the equine experience while developing her interested in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. She has extensively studied this and is certified by the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA). Donna is also a Natural Lifemanship practitioner and has guided self-discovery, relationship growth, and behavioral change with adults, children, and adolescents. Some examples of her work include facilitating equine therapy through the juvenile justice system, members of the military through the Wounded Warrior Project, and clients with substance abuse issues.
Donna has partnered with Lutheranch, a 519 acre ranch in Tallapoosa, to provide equine therapy (Equine Assisted Psychotherapy) services. Red Clay Counseling tailors your sessions, utilizing a program that includes a team approach with both a Licensed Mental Health counselor and an Equine Specialist, both trained in certification programs. Please note the importance of working with a team that includes licensed mental health professionals. We provide an emotionally safe place to explore human interaction with the horses, which teaches us so much about our own way of being in the world.
Who is Red Clay Counseling, LLC For?
Red Clay Counseling, LLC assists anyone
in the following age groups:
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Children 0-12
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Adolescents
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Adults to age 60
Insurances Accepted
Red Clay Counseling, LLC accepts
the following insurances:
BCBS
Tricare
Aetna
Cigna
Amerigroup
Caresource
Ambetter
Peachstate
Therapies Offered
EQUINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY
Horses assist in humans’ attention to self and others in relationship because of their natural prey instincts. They live in relationship with the herd. These relationships are complex. Horses are always inquisitive and in tune with the nonverbal messages a human is sending.
Every equine if unique just like humans with their own personalities and opinions. Horses have no agenda and are completely honest leading to increased openness of the partnered human. Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is provocative because “something is always happening” in the mind and body of the horse or person.
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy creates benefits in relationships, healthy assertiveness and personal boundary creation. The skills enhanced or developed include effective and appropriate communication skills, insight into current beliefs and behaviors, self-confidence and clear self-identity, effective team work, and leadership skills. Equine Assisted Psychotherapy helps clarify questions you may be asking yourself and promote solutions by providing a chance to practice new behaviors in real time.
You and others will develop relationships with the horses and participate in activities that lead to “Aha” moments that otherwise may not as quickly come into awareness in a traditional talk therapy session.
Trained and/or Certified by:
EAGALA Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Natural Lifemanship Trauma-Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
SAND TRAY THERAPY
Sand tray therapy is a metaphorical tool that allows a person to separate from an internal problem and externalize an issue to process it through the use of representational objects. A narrative may be created or the story is a piece of art. This process allows a person to solve a problem from an objective approach and to gain insight into the emotions experienced.
ACCELERATED RESOLUTION THERAPY (ART)
Donna Watkins, MEd, LPC is one of only a handful of Accelerated Resolution Therapy trained practitioners in the state of Georgia. Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a type of psychotherapy that is accepted as evidence based by SAMHSA and substantiated by proven therapeutic methods. ART is uncomplicated for the participant by using rapid eye movements that are easily done and calming. It is not hypnosis, and the client is in control. ART aids in the rapid resolution of traumatic experiences by the participant’s moving past painful events toward personal growth. ART is useful especially for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sexual abuse, domestic violence, depression, anxiety, and many other mental and physical conditions that are affecting a person’s quality of life. Clients may experience rapid results in just one session.
Along with the use of specific eye-movements ART uses a specialized technique call Voluntary Memory/Image Replacement that allows the participant to keep a memory that no longer will be a trigger to painful emotions and somatic symptoms. An essential characteristic of ART is the participant’s ability to process trauma and other events or states of being that are causing distress without revealing the trauma or story to the therapist. The participant is able to gain awareness and insight that emboldens the participate to change thoughts and behaviors. ART is utilized on several military bases, and peer-reviewed research continues to be generated.
CHILD PARENT PSYCHOTHERAPY (CPP)
Child-Parent Psychotherapy focuses on healing in relationship between a child and caregiver. The exclusive focus is on the connection between the child and caregiver instead of the therapist and child. The therapist facilitates the interactions and helps the caregiver develop an awareness of their own triggers and insight into how potential experiences may influence parenting. Child-Parent Psychotherapy also involves the caregiver in facilitating the caregiver’s growth and healing from their past experiences leading to a healthier parenting journey. Child-Parent Psychotherapy is unique in that it can begin while a caregiver is expecting an infant or has an infant.
Recognizing the crucial experiences of young children in promoting close attachment to others in life, developing resilience, promoting effective learning skills, developing healthy behavioral decisions, and skill building for the regulation of emotions.
Trained and/or Certified by:
EAGALA Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Natural Lifemanship Trauma-Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
Your First Office Visit
I'm incredibly excited that you've chosen to visit me! Due to COVID-19 restrictions and the time it takes to fill out new patient forms, you are REQUIRED to wait in your vehicle for an attendant to verify your temperature at every visit and that I receive intake paperwork from you at this time.
It is VERY IMPORTANT that you download, print and fill out the appropriate document from below and bring the completed form with you to your first visit.
NOTE: I will NOT be able to supply printed forms for you to fill out when you arrive.
Adolescent Intake Form
Ages 12-17
Child Intake Form
Ages 0-11
Adult Intake Form
Ages 18 and Up