Erin Carlton is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. She obtained her Masters of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from University of the Cumberlands. Erin is trained in both CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and CPP (Child Parent Psychotherapy). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a treatment approach that helps you recognize negative or unhelpful thought and behavior patterns. Many experts consider it to be the gold standard of psychotherapy. CBT aims to help children and adults identify and explore the ways your emotions and thoughts can affect your actions.
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Erin also specializes in CPP. She is passionate about understanding the family system. She utilizes an evidenced based therapy known as Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). This is a psychodynamic type of therapy that focuses on working with parents to help their children's mental health. This model has been found to be very effective for many childhood disorders, including anxiety, separation anxiety, school avoidance, and depression in children. The treatment is based in attachment theory but also integrates psychodynamic, developmental, trauma, social learning, and cognitive behavioral theories. Therapeutic sessions include the child and parent or primary caregiver. The primary goal is to support and strengthen the relationship between a child and his or her caregiver as a vehicle for restoring the child's cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning. Treatment also focuses on contextual factors that may affect the caregiver-child relationship. This type of therapy helps to heal the family as a unit, and removes the burden and stigma from the individual child. They utilize an approach that appreciates the complexities of children's lives and well-being, including the family dynamics, school setting and deeper psychodynamic factors.
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Erin's clinical experience includes providing Individual, Group and Family Therapy to diverse populations, including: adults, university students, teenagers, and children. She has a special interest in working with children, adolescents, and running group therapy. Erin works directly with our physicians to provide integrated care. She completed her practicum at the U of Counseling Center, providing individual therapy for university students. She completed her internship working with incarcerated individuals within the legal system; this experience involved acute crisis management and high acuity situations in which Erin worked directly with individuals and families who were suffering from chronic mental illness. She now focuses on working with children and families, in evidenced-based therapy, CBT, as well as working with families in CPP.
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