Jillian Houghton

(she/her)

Seek Anchor

LPC

Currently accepting new clients.

Telehealth Availability:

Telehealth sessions are available Monday through Friday between 11am and 6pm. Intensives are available in 3 hour or 5 hour formats starting at either 9:30 am or 11 am.

In-Person Availability:

In person sessions are offered in a walk and talk setting at a local park in Roanoke Virginia and is subject to weather.

Clients I Work With

Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, and deeply self-aware. From the outside, they often appear to have it together, but internally they may feel exhausted from carrying responsibility, managing expectations, or trying to be who others needed them to be. Some are recovering from religious trauma, spiritual abuse, high-control relationships, or family systems that taught them to prioritize belonging over authenticity. Others are navigating life transitions, identity shifts, perfectionism, anxiety, shame, estrangement, or a persistent sense of disconnection from themselves. They often tell me, "I understand why I am the way I am, but I don't know how to actually live differently." My work is especially helpful for people who are ready to move beyond insight alone and begin building the internal safety, self-trust, and flexibility needed to create a life that feels more aligned, embodied, and their own.

Approach

I believe many of our struggles make sense when viewed in the context of what we've lived through. Rather than asking "What's wrong with you?" I help clients explore "What happened, and how did you learn to adapt?" Therapy with me is collaborative, curious, and grounded. I integrate nervous system awareness, somatic approaches, parts work, attachment theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and trauma-informed practices to help clients understand both their stories and their lived experience in the present. Sessions often involve slowing down enough to notice patterns, emotions, body sensations, and protective responses that have operated automatically for years. My goal isn't to help you become someone different. It's to help you create enough safety and self-trust that you can stop organizing your life around old adaptations and begin making choices from a place that feels more authentically yours.

Beliefs & Lived Experience

My specialization grew out of listening to clients who repeatedly sat across from me believing they were broken. Many had been shaped by religious environments, family systems, or communities that taught them to distrust themselves while striving endlessly to become someone "better." Their stories led me to study religious trauma, high-control systems, identity development, and the ways adaptation can become mistaken for identity. I also bring personal experience navigating faith transition and life beyond evangelical culture, which gives me a deep respect for the complexity of rebuilding meaning, belonging, and self-trust after certainty has been disrupted. My work is grounded in the belief that people are not problems to be fixed. Being queer and a deep feeler is my own personal way of understanding this. Healing often begins when we can approach ourselves with curiosity, compassion, and enough safety to reconnect with the parts of us that have been hidden, silenced, or abandoned.

More About My Practice

In addition to traditional therapy sessions, I offer therapy intensives for individuals who want focused support around a specific issue, life transition, breakthrough, or period of integration. Intensives provide extended time and space for deeper exploration than is often possible in weekly therapy. My practice is particularly well-suited for those navigating religious trauma, spiritual abuse, identity reconstruction, shame, perfectionism, self-trust, and major life transitions. I also offer walk-and-talk sessions in select locations for clients who find movement and nature supportive to the therapeutic process. Regardless of format, my goal is to create a thoughtful, collaborative space where meaningful change can happen at a pace that honors both depth and sustainability.

Additional Credentials & Training

Specialized in religious trauma

Ages Served

Adults (18+)

Services Provided

Individual Therapy

Specialized Experience

Body-positive / Health at Every Size
Disability-informed care
Educators
Entrepreneurs & Executives
First Responders & Medical Professionals
LGBTQ+ Affirming
Neurodiversity-affirming
Race & cultural identity
Self-Employed & Freelance Professionals
Therapists & Mental Health Professionals
Trans-affirming care
Veterans / Military Service

Gender Identity

Woman

Languages Spoken

English

Faith Communities Served

Agnostic
Atheist
Catholic
Christian
Interfaith
Jehovah’s Witness
Jewish
Multifaith
Secular and Non-Religious
Spiritual
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Unitarian Universalist

Specializations

Modalities

Acceptance and Commitment (ACT)
Adlerian
Attachment-Based
Culturally Responsive Therapy
Existential Therapy
Family Systems Therapy
Gestalt Therapy
Humanistic Therapy
Integrative Therapy
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Jungian Therapy
Motivational Interviewing
Narrative Therapy
Parts Work
Psychedelic Integration
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Therapy
Systemic Therapy
Walk and Talk Therapy

Specialties

Gender Identity
Life Transitions
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Perfectionism
Self Esteem
Spiritual Abuse
Spirituality
Trauma & PTSD
Women’s Mental Health

Insurance and Payment

Payment Accepted

Cash

Credit

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

Health Savings Account (HSA)

Out of Network (Superbills Provided)

Private Pay (Superbills Not Provided)

Session Fees

$150

-$1040

State Licensed In

Virginia