Amy Leary, LCSW
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Message from Amy
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist (LCAS) practicing in Charlotte, North Carolina, I provide individual therapy for adults with depression, anxiety, grief, traumatic stress, addiction and other mental health issues. I enjoy working with people who want to overcome or cope with difficult emotions, restore hope and confidence, repair or build relationships, create healthier patterns, or establish and maintain recovery. Are you seeking relief, insight, courage? Safe support? Skills for change? To slow down, shift priorities, speak up, or step out? Some people come with ideas about what they want or need; others don't. Some are just hurting, overwhelmed, at wits end, and don't know what to do next. Therapy works for both. Everyone deserves support. Most of my sessions are in person in Charlotte's Oakhurst neighborhood. I do offer some virtual sessions. My sessions start at noon with my latest session at 6pm Monday through Thursday, 4pm on Fridays. I do free consultation calls (up to 30min) between 11-11:45am at (704) 312-0583, and can usually return voice messages shortly during that hour. To schedule a free call by email, send a secure message at this form online: hushforms.com/contactamylearylcsw See the Q & A section below to learn about my insurance and affordable therapy, and my therapy approach and background. For more, visit charlottetherapyworks.com.
About Amy's practice
Weekdays After 5pm
Weekdays 9am - 5pm
$
Sliding scale
Reflective
Body-based
In-person available: Yes
Virtual available: Yes
Career-Related Stress
Life Transitions
Addiction and Substance Use
Chronic Illness
Depression
Grief and Bereavement
Anxiety
Trauma
Blue Cross Blue Shield BCBS
NC
Why state matters
Get to Know Amy
What are your policies and practices around insurance?
I'm in network with most BCBS plans. For out of network benefits, I provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance. Affordable therapy is important to me. I strive to keep my private rates low ($125 individual therapy, $175 initial assessment) and I'm also a member therapist of Open Path Psychotherapy Collective. Open Path makes affordable therapy available to its members ($40-$70 for individual therapy). I have a limited number of Open Path spots available in my practice and I keep a wait list for Open Path members who send their member ID. openpathcollective.org / charlottetherapyworks.com
From your perspective, what is therapy?
The trust that forms in a professional counseling relationship is a kind of soil where self-awareness and compassion can grow. These can be powerful catalysts for positive change when paired with the evidence-based interventions a skilled therapist offers. In my practice, the process is both bottom-up, working with the body and emotions to experience safety, release and healing, as well as top-down, working with thoughts and learning to build new skills and connections for the lives we seek. I usually see people weekly for at least the first 4-6 sessions. Some people shift to every other week, others continue weekly depending on what’s going on and the work we're doing together, and for others, that amount of therapy is enough. Everyone's therapy process is unique.
Where did you work before going into private practice?
Since 1994, I've worked doing assessment, counseling, crisis intervention and resource connection for diverse needs. For most of my 15 years in agencies prior to private practice, I helped adults overcoming addiction and mental illness access recovery and move toward stability. My work focused at different times on young adults transitioning to independence, teenagers overcoming crisis, and adults with disabilities and histories of trauma and loss. After starting private practice in 2014, I maintained a weekend on-call/PRN role as a psychotherapist at Behavioral Health Charlotte on the Child & Adolescent Inpatient unit, until March 2020. I also worked with Atrium's Child & Adolescent Partial Hospitalization and Behavioral Health Integration programs. My transition to private practice was largely motivated by a desire to help people achieve post-traumatic growth and develop trauma resiliency. I believe the body has innate capacity for healing and growth and that people who want to can change. I admire the work of the Trauma Resource Institute and am trained in their Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM Level 2), which emphasizes body awareness and wellness skills for regaining a sense of power after trauma or while coping with traumatic stress. From training in TRM, EMDR, and yoga for trauma, anxiety, and addiction recovery, I teach somatic experiencing skills to build resiliency. Mindfulness, emotional awareness, and social and physical health are all important areas of my work with people. Skills for mindfulness are essential for developing our self-compassion. Many therapy approaches use mindfulness skills because of their effectiveness (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). I’m trained in these and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and I incorporate mindfulness practices in sessions. My approach to emotions is influenced by Brené Brown's teaching that "language does not just communicate what we’re feeling, it shapes it.” I completed both of her group processes (Rising Strong, Daring Way) and they inform how I work with emotions. Underlying emotions may be different than the feelings we're expressing at the surface, and they can teach us about our needs. The vulnerability that therapy invites is a potential roadmap to healing. Insight without action can leave us feeling stuck. For almost 30 years now in a variety of roles, I've supported meaningful change for people at their own pace and timing. My practice is well-informed by training in Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, attachment theory, neuroscience of anxiety and addition, pharmacology for mental health and addition, and adverse childhood experiences (ACES). I value integrated healthcare and can coordinate care for co-occurring conditions with medical or psychiatric providers. I have a strong interest in functional approaches that promote food as medicine, movement to reduce anxiety or improve mood, and social support to strengthen change efforts. In recent years, I've focused my professional development training on MH Integrative Medicine and nutrition for mental health. As a woman approaching menopause, I'm enthusiastic about the benefits of hormonal and metabolic health. charlottetherapyworks.com