Oliver Holmes
Oliver Holmes (he/him) is a Clinical Mental Health Counseling intern who has earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Connecticut College and is currently working towards his master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from NC State University. For the past year, Oliver has been working in private practice alongside clients from varied backgrounds and with a wide array of clinical concerns from unpacking childhood neglect to improving communication with loved ones. Prior to his counseling work, he spent several years performing clinical research on the adverse psychiatric effects of trauma as well as cognitive functional deficits.
As somebody who has spent most of his life navigating an unorthodox family structure, a history of loved ones with severe physical and mental illnesses, and many personal encounters with the question of “what am I supposed to be doing here?”, Oliver has rarely been a stranger to the reality that all of our stories are unique. This early exposure to interpersonal conflict and a close proximity to human suffering has driven his desire to explore the vast expanse of possible human experiences, especially the ones that are hard to carry alone. With time (and a lot of introspection), Oliver continues to gain clarity and acceptance of his personal history, and has long been interested in helping others find meaning in their own experiences. To this end, Oliver is dedicated to exploring the beauty and pain that has shaped us into the complex people we are today, as well as figuring out what kind of people we wish to become.
Oliver approaches therapy through a collaborative and personalized lens, tailoring sessions to best suit your needs and working with you to make therapy as successful as possible by helping to identify your personal strengths and core values. Oliver employs humanistic, existential, and narrative approaches, incorporating concepts from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), trauma-informed therapy, feminist models, and many others theories when relevant. In essence, Oliver believes that your story is worth telling and that your voice has every right to be heard. As such, he would be honored to help you unravel your personal narrative and work towards whatever goals are most meaningful to you. Throughout the process, Oliver intends to create an environment where you feel empowered to speak your mind, make mistakes, and know yourself better without fear of judgement. In any given session you can count on him to be authentic, interested in your life, humorous (when appropriate), and ready to explore even the emotions and thoughts that we aren’t always proud of. With patience, practice, and cooperation, Oliver hopes to help you chart a path between a complicated past, a difficult present, and a more fulfilling future.
Oliver works primarily with adolescent and adult individuals of all genders, sexual orientations, abilities, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences. He approaches each person with the knowledge that: A) Even on a good day, being a human is hard, and B) Our experience is made even harder when we feel unheard, unseen, and misunderstood. With this in mind, Oliver is especially passionate about working with those who are feeling overwhelmed while facing major life transitions, implementing personal changes, and breaking out of uncomfortably familiar patterns. Whether you’re struggling with depression, anxiety, complex trauma, neurodivergence, relational conflict, familial discord, the effects of marginalization on identity formation, or the unbearably heavy weight of the human experience, he would be honored to hear your story and help you bring some cohesion to the chaos.
