Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlyn Ellington.
Hi Ashlyn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I never set out thinking I’d run a growing practice. My first real experience with therapy was actually family therapy as a pre-teen. Every Wednesday night it was me and my two parents crammed onto a loveseat with the promise of ice cream afterward as the only incentive. I hated it at the time, but it changed the trajectory of our family and my relationship with my parents, and it was the first time I understood how powerful good therapy can be. Since then, I’ve loved the work of sitting with people and helping them make sense of hard things.
After Furman University for undergrad, I went on to UGA for my MSW and Marriage and Family Therapy training and spent the first part of my career at Skyland Trail, Dekalb Medical, and Peachtree DBT/Peachtree Psychiatric Professionals. Those environments were intense, but they gave me exposure to complex cases and families who were really struggling, and I found that I thrived there. I liked the messiness, the problem-solving, and the relational systems piece.
By the time I opened Atlanta Counseling Collective in Buckhead in 2019, I had a clearer sense of the gaps I wanted to fill. So many adolescents, young adults, and parents needed a space that was grounded, practical, and not performative. I’ve always been drawn to emotionally sensitive and intense kids and families, high-conflict dynamics, clients who are burnt out and quietly drowning. I also do a lot of high conflict divorce work, exposure-based anxiety work, and parent coaching around anxious and inflexible kids. Over time, those niche areas really shaped the identity of the practice.
The growth of the business happened somewhat organically. I added clinicians who shared the same values around straightforward, evidence-based care and strong communication with families. We now have a multi-clinician team, a larger office footprint, parent-focused services like coaching and executive function groups, and a strong referral network across schools, psychiatrists, and attorneys.
On a personal level, going through pregnancy loss, and the evolving seasons of my own family sharpened my interest in transitions and family relationships. I think it made me a better therapist and a more grounded leader. I’m still very actively clinical, but I also love the entrepreneurial side: building systems, mentoring clinicians, and creating a business that supports good work instead of burning people out.
It’s been a lot of growth in the past 7 years, and I’m proud of how thoughtful the expansion has been. The heart of it hasn’t changed. We built a place for people to get real help, for parents to feel supported instead of shamed, and for clinicians to do good work without losing themselves in the process.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not a smooth road. Therapists are not robots. We are sitting with other people’s stories while managing our own, and sometimes the timing of life is inconvenient at best. There were seasons where I was doing really meaningful clinical work while privately navigating pregnancy loss, personal changes and feelings. It taught me pretty quickly that therapists need support too.
My transition into private practice was its own chapter. I came from Peachtree DBT where I spent seven years and had mentors I deeply respected. That place shaped me as a clinician in ways I am grateful for. But I also had an entrepreneurial itch I needed to scratch. The first year of private practice was lonely. When you come from a supportive environment where you have colleagues down the hall to debrief with, it is a shock to suddenly be alone in a room with your thoughts, a calendar, and a lease.
What I love now is that I’ve been able to recreate that supportive feel within Atlanta Counseling Collective for both clients and clinicians. We get to do high-quality clinical work without pretending we’re superhuman, and that balance feels really important to me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Atlanta Counseling Collective ?
Atlanta Counseling Collective is a group therapy practice in Buckhead that works with kids, teens, adults, and parents. We specialize in anxiety, emotional regulation, neurodivergence, executive function challenges, parent coaching, and the kind of family dynamics that feel intense or confusing from the inside. We are known for being both clinical and human at the same time. You will not find a therapist wearing a beige sweater (ok, well maybe sometimes) and only asking “and how does that make you feel”. We actually teach skills, coach parents, collaborate with schools and psychiatrists, and help families speak to each other without needing a translator.
We support clients through every season. We see kids as young as six all the way into adulthood, because most families do not struggle in isolation. When a child is having a hard time, so is the parent. When a young adult is struggling, so is the system around them. Having clinicians who work across the lifespan lets us intervene in smarter ways instead of handing families off and hoping for the best.
Every clinician at ACC shares a core set of values around evidence-based care, collaboration, and real-world skills, but each has developed their own specialty. We have clinicians who focus on trauma, women’s mental health, attachment injuries, emotion dysregulation, OCD, executive functioning, neurodivergence, and high-feelings families, and divorce support. That diversity means clients get matched to the right person instead of forcing every problem into the same treatment lane.
The thing I am most proud of is the caliber of care we give our clients. People trust us with the most important parts of their lives, and we honor that responsibility with training, collaboration, and a very high bar for clinical work.
If readers take anything away, I want them to know that therapy does not have to be sterile or intimidating. It can be practical, relational, skill-based, and genuinely transformative.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atlcounseling.com
- Instagram: @atlantacounselingcollective
Image Credits
Photos by Shawna Walker Photo
