KRISTINE MEDEA

Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress (BCETS)
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor (CPCS)

Meet Kristine

As the Founder of ThrivingHeart® Healing Arts, I am committed to providing depth-oriented psychotherapy for you and/or your loved one. As a person-centered therapist, with a specialization in trauma resolution and healing, I provide therapy that is geared toward your specific needs.

While we can’t change difficult situations or deep hurts of the past, we can work together to better understand and resolve the impact of those events in our current lives and relationships. By applying complementary therapy approaches and techniques, we will discover patterns that may be holding you back from experiencing a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

Together, we can find the means to overcome challenges in your life – whatever those may be.

What I Believe About Healing

I believe…

  • In the healing power of relationships, and the capacity for all human beings to learn, grow, and change.

  • That each person enters the journey of therapy with their own needs and hopes.

  • Therapy is a partnership between you and me that we enter together.

  • The process works best when we set the pace and depth of the work to be done together.

Whether you need intensive support and guidance, or you’re just ready to move in a new direction in your life, contact me and see if we are a good match. I look forward to working with you to achieve a resolution for your concerns.

Professional Experience

Kristine Medea founded ThrivingHeart® Healing Arts in 2009 after 20 years of extensive work with at-risk populations. Ms. Medea has specializations in trauma resolution and attachment facilitation with children and adults impacted by foster care and adoption placements. She regularly works with individuals who have experienced extreme traumatic events such as sexual trauma, conversion or “reparative” therapy, and interpersonal and community violence.

In addition to her clinical practice, Ms. Medea is known for her inspirational keynote speaking, experiential training, onsite staff development, and program development consultation. She consulted with Head Start, the Georgia Department of Public Health, the National Mental Health Association, and other organizations on a range of mental health and child development topics; and has provided a wide range of clinical commentary to the local and national media including CNN, ABC World News Tonight and Free Speech Radio.

Ms. Medea was one of eight therapists selected from across Georgia by the Office of Adoptions to receive advanced clinical training in the treatment and strategies for adopted children and families with attachment and adjustment difficulties.

Ms. Medea led the statewide Suicide Prevention Planning efforts that culminated in a strategic plan for Georgia. She has served on the Georgia Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council, the Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Foundation Board, and the Mental Health Advisory Board for YouthPride.

Ms. Medea co-founded Heartwork Counseling Center in 2002, where she provided a range of therapeutic services to individuals and families, serving as the Executive Director from 2002 to 2009. Prior to that, she was the Director of Clinical Education and Youth Programs for the National Mental Health Association of Georgia, leading the department in the development and implementation of multicultural mental health programming which was recognized in 2005 with the national Betty Humphrey Multicultural Award.  In the late 1990’s Ms. Medea had a private psychotherapy practice in Seattle, Washington.

Education

Master’s Degree, Applied Behavioral Science, Bastyr University’s Leadership Institute of Seattle

Certificate, Treatment of Long-Term Psychiatric Disorders, University of Washington School of Social Work

Diplomate, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress

Speaking Engagements

  • The Carter Center

  • The Alabama Presbyterian Children’s Home

  • Georgia Department of Public Health

  • Office of Child Health

  • Children Unlimited, Columbia South Carolina

  • Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice

  • Georgia Office of Behavioral Health

  • National Action Network.

Written Work

  • Finding Our Way Through, Giving Voice to Children in the Mental Health System.

  • Cray Cray: The Girl Who Climbed Out of the Cuckoo's Nest and Found Her Way to a Thriving Heart

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