Hidden Gems: Meet Shirsten of Shirsten Dreyer Counseling, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shirsten.

Hi Shirsten, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As an empty nester in my mid-forties, I began thinking through what my next chapter of life would entail and then made the decision to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of North Georgia. Preparing for the GRE (especially math!) had me shaking in my boots, but I was fortunate to pass and was then accepted to a program that valued life experience and diversity among students. Navigating school in the age of technology felt overwhelming at times, because the last time I had been in college, the internet did not exist! The friendships I built in that program endure, as my classmates are now colleagues, and we continue to encourage one another and sharpen one another’s clinical skills.

After interning at a sexual trauma treatment center in Gainesville, I graduated and accepted a community-based position as a counselor in public mental health, where I gained a wealth of on-the-job training, mentorship, and experience. When I learned that I was going to become a grandmother in 2021, I moved to private practice so that I had more flexibility to wear both the “Counselor” hat and the “Mimi” hat. After several years with an office in the Atlanta/Chamblee area, I relocated closer to home in Gwinnett in 2025, which has made my commute monumentally better!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I feel like I often cried my way through graduate school and my first year as a therapist, because self-doubt and imposter syndrome were very real! It took some time for me to recognize and remind myself of the reality that I will never know “all the things” and that being a lifelong learner will serve me well in this profession.

The licensure process is extensive, from securing a job, to applying for associate licensure, to accruing thousands of hours of work under supervision over several years, then finally applying for full licensure. It took seven years from the time I took the GRE to the time I became an LPC!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Shirsten Dreyer Counseling, LLC?
In addition to being a Licensed Professional Counselor, I also hold credentials as a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and much of my work focuses on trauma. Additional areas of focus include Grief, Life Transitions, Aging, Relationship Challenges, Anxiety, and Depression. I also really enjoy working with people who have never been to therapy, helping to destigmatize therapy and build trust in the therapeutic process, and giving people a supportive place to approach tender places within themselves.

One of the greatest strengths I bring to my practice is compassionate empathy. It is a privilege to sit with people in their hard places in life, to honor and name their struggles, and to help equip them in processing, healing, and making meaning from life’s challenges. I also am passionate about educating clients on what may be going on physiologically in times of stress, how the nervous system works with emotional activation, and strategies to work through triggers and waves of intensity rather than trying to stuff or outrun them.

To inject a little comfort at the end of sessions, I have a couple of goodies available to clients. In my book, counseling takes courage, and courage deserves chocolate! Also, when I was in grad school, the UNG counseling center gave us rubber ducks as a reminder to come to counseling so we don’t “quack up.” My former office mate and I ran with that idea and have given out hundreds of ducks to clients who want a visual reminder of the noble work they are doing in therapy.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
As a human, being a person of integrity and compassion are values I strive to uphold, and those values carry into what I mindfully bring to the counseling setting. Life throws us unimaginable curve balls, so I work to be a practitioner of the very principles I impart to clients so that I am modeling and growing in those areas myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shirstendreyer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirsten_dreyer_counseling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089606882332

Image Credits
Shirsten Dreyer