Elizabeth WootenProvisional Licensed Professional Counselor

Elizabeth Wooten, Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor, 2022008528 is practicing under the supervision of Sandra Davis (Missouri, LPC, 2007002474) at Enlitens Counseling.

Please, note: A clinician listed as being “clinically supervised” is completing clinical hours toward their licensure. They have one or more fully licensed clinical supervisors that often have special training to become supervisors. They consult with their supervisor(s) on all of their cases, which means that, when working with them, you are getting the time and expertise of multiple therapists in your treatment.

There is a huge gap in the way that ADHD and Autism are diagnosed and treated when it comes to biological male and biological female clients. Typically biological female clients are diagnosed more with anxiety and often do not have any improvement in their daily lives from anxiety treatment because they actually are neurodiverse. My goal in mental health is to be sure that people are getting not only treatment but also education to better understand what is going on with their own mental health.

The biggest thing my clients learn about me is that I also embrace uniqueness. In sessions I model that sometimes we need a minute to think of the right words, or we have to laugh at ourselves, or that our art skills may not be the best but the biggest thing is that we tried. I encourage people to be themselves and I bring that to sessions to. I strive to be transparent and make sure that the relationship we build can be based on trust because you understand that I can be a person you can be safe with.

Honestly, we all know cost is a huge barrier to care. Not everyone has insurance or benefits that cover mental health, and there are a lot of reasons to choose not to have your insurance involved in your mental health care. Even if you are using insurance benefits they can limit the amount of care that you can get based on what they determine your need is. My ultimate goal is to ensure that cost is not a barrier for someone starting or continuing services. If that means we use a sliding scale or work out a payment plan I'd much rather us do that so that people can get the care they feel they need.

I've been working in the mental health field for about 12 years. Prior to being a counselor, I worked a lot with the Autistic community across the lifespan building communication and advocacy skills, working on emotional expression and understanding, and helping people and their families with everyday aspects of aging like life transitions, making friends, starting and ending relationships, moving away from parents, and starting new jobs. I've brought this into my counseling work by focusing on how emotions, attachment, and behaviors influence what we as people do. I tend to follow my client's lead and adjust my format along the way (the fancy counseling way of saying this is "eclectic style of counseling.") One of my favorite things to bring into this is my own personality and randomness...so you don't just sit for 45 minutes talking about your feelings. We might play a game, have some examples from Bob's Burgers (or another random show you mention that I've also seen), talk about how the video game you play can be applicable to the situations you find yourself in, or do some art projects. My goal is always to be sure that you as a client get what you need to embrace your uniqueness.