Carly Hitchcock, MA, is a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern in the state of Florida on a lifelong quest to provide clients with mental health care that is accessible, empowering, holistic, strengths-based, and culturally inclusive. She completed her Master of Arts through University of Central Florida’s Counselor Education program in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling track, and she holds her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with minors in Education and Child Development from Florida State University, where she graduated magna cum laude with Honors in the Major awarded in recognition of her undergraduate thesis, “The Compared Experiences of Sexual Minorities in College”.
Carly has over five years of combined experience connecting children, adolescents, adults, families, and groups in Florida to mental health and substance use treatment across non-profit and private agency, school, outpatient, IOP, PHP, and residential settings. With the privilege of learning from a diverse range of supervisors, colleagues, and clients, she developed a therapeutic style characterized by unconditional positive regard, prioritization of clients’ sense of safety and trust in the therapeutic relationship, and establishment of a collaborative dynamic aimed at reducing power imbalances in the therapy room. Her clients can expect her to consistently show up to sessions with humility, forthcomingness, a touch of humor, and an endless supply of metaphors.
Carly is a passionate advocate and proud member of the LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse communities and places emphasis on working with adolescent and young adult members of these populations. Her areas of clinical strength include assisting clients ages 12+ with navigating major life and identity transitions; managing symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, complex trauma, and ADHD; improving self-esteem; overcoming perfectionism; recovery from addictions, eating disorders, and self-harm; and establishing and maintaining healthy relationships. She incorporates techniques from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Expressive Arts Therapy, and bibliotherapy.
Outside of the therapy room, Carly loves Dungeons & Dragons, video games, crochet, painting, reading sci-fi and fantasy fiction, singing, and curling up on the couch with her cat, J’zargo.