Jessica Wilkerson, LMFT 104464

Jessica is Inspired Life Counseling’s owner and clinical supervisor. She is fully trained in EMDR for trauma, hypnosis, and EFT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy).

​Hello! It’s a big step to start looking up therapists, and I’m honored to potentially get to work together. I am constantly finding a new niche and specialty so I can continue to grow as a therapist and provide deeper and more well-rounded healing experiences for my clients. My clients regularly take a week off from sessions as I’m jetting across the country to learn a new modality or the latest discoveries in our field.

Here’s a little about where I’ve been professionally so you can determine if we’d be a good fit. “Fit” is just as important as skill and intellect.

In the early days of my career I specialized in early childhood behaviors and parenting. I was trained through the University of Queensland (remotely, in Redding, I didn’t travel to Australia) in the modality called Triple P or The Positive Parenting Program. I worked only with families in their homes for three years and was able to help initiate some really amazing changes for children and parents. I use these experiences and the training now when I’m in sessions with individuals and couples – usually there’s something happening at home and I can help them work through those issues with my parenting training.

Then, in 2014 I was trained through an EMDRIA approved trainer for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I’ve been providing several sessions a day, most days of the week ever since. I knew this was effective, but I had no idea how incredibly powerful EMDR would be for my clients! It’s so effective on big traumas, but it’s equally as beautiful on current daily stressors like marriage conflict, work drama, and issues with your kids. EMDR is a game-changer for most people who try it (not everyone, but a good percentage).

More recently, in 2019 I began my journey with ICEEFT learning and implementing EFT & EFIT. Emotionally Focused Therapy is often known by people who have read the book “Hold Me Tight” by Sue Johnson. It’s an attachment-based model in which each member of the relationship heals wounds from before and during their time together through trust, communication, and taking big risks with vulnerability. There’s a lot of crying in these sessions, but most people feel safer to cry with their therapist present as a buffer than they do at home when it’s just the two of them, so it’s to be expected.

EFIT is the newest branch of Emotionally Focused Therapy in which I use many of the same tenets as EFT, but it’s one-on-one between my client and me rather than in a couples setting. My client processes their pain through experiential exercises in which they go within themselves to their implicit pain and memories, and bring that pain forward into the present moment becoming explicit in the room and opened up for healing.

I genuinely embody the phrase: “human first, therapist second.” You get me as me, but you also get all the years I’ve thrown myself passionately into the field of psychotherapy. Casual dress and speech, but with my mind always whirring in the background to help you move through what brought you into my room in the first place.