Connect with Jessica.
Hi! I’m Jessica.
I use the pronouns she/her. I’m a therapist, a sailor, neurodivergent, and the kind of person who will hold space for your hardest stuff while also laughing with you when it’s warranted.
My path to therapy didn’t start in a clinic—it started in the classroom.
From the classroom to the therapy room... Before opening Wild Ember Counseling, I spent over a decade as a teacher. In those years, I learned that "behavior" is a language. Whether it was a child acting out or an adult trying to hold everything together, I saw how deeply our earliest experiences shape who we become—and how little we understand about why we do what we do. I realized:
You cannot heal a struggle by only treating the symptom... You have to understand the whole person.
That's what I do now. I work mostly with adults who are high-achieving, exhausted, and often neurodivergent—people who've spent their lives adapting and performing and are starting to feel the cost. Together, we go underneath the patterns to understand where they come from and what they've been protecting.
-
My approach is gentle and fierce— I bring warmth and safety, alongside honest, direct challenge. I’m not going to hand you a worksheet. We’re going to get curious together about the parts of you that have been running the show—the inner critic, the people-pleaser, the part that learned to perform “fine” a long time ago.
I work integratively, drawing from:
Internal Family Systems (IFS): Befriending the parts of yourself you've been at war with.
Trauma-Informed Care: Building safety first. Always at your pace.
Mindful Self-Compassion: Learning to talk to yourself the way you'd talk to someone you love.
-
The people who find their way here tend to share some things in common:
Complex Trauma (C-PTSD), Dissociation: Carrying old wounds that shape how you move through the world — often invisibly.
Neurodivergence (ADHD, Autism, HSP): Exhausted from adapting to a world that wasn't built for your brain. This isn't skills coaching — it's depth work.
Burnout, Anxiety, People Pleasing: The "over-functioner" who looks capable but is running on fumes.
Relationship Patterns, Attachment: Understanding why the same dynamics keep showing up.
-
MSW | University of Houston
MEd | University of Sioux Falls
LSWAIC | SC61688569
Clinical Supervision | Sarah Welch LW60960218
Training:
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Trauma-Informed Care
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Mindful Self-Compassion
Let's Connect
Let's Connect
The most important part of therapy is feeling safe with the person sitting across from you. Let's connect and see if we click.