Ms. Alia Cross

LMHC

I returned to graduate school in my 30’s to become a therapist after surviving my own journey of having Bipolar One Disorder. The disease is something I live with and manage. During the course of my treatment, I’ve felt what it’s like to have had both poor counselors and also to have had excellent ones. I strive to be one of the better ones. I do this in a variety of ways, but the most crucial one is that I regularly check-in with my clients about their lived experience. I ask my clients how they feel counseling is going. I ask for feedback: What do they think is going well? What’s not going as well? What needs to change in order for their healing process to work for them? Sometimes this means a client will share that I am not the right therapist for them. I don’t take that personally. With those situations, I will provide verbal praise for honest communication and will make a referral to another provider. I choose this profession because I respect other people and believe that each one of us is the own best expert on our lives.