Healing Begins with Courage
Holistic mental health support for anxiety, trauma, relational problems, and spiritual wounding
Virtual & In-person Therapy for Wisconsin Residents
You’ve always been the one who shows up for everyone else. But lately? You’re exhausted in a way that rest doesn’t fix.
While you smile on the outside, inside you’re carrying a heavy weight that begs to be lifted.
If this is you— you’re in the right place.
Support for your healing journey
Whether you're navigating anxiety, trauma, spiritual harm, a major life transition, or just wanting to finally take time to understand your story, individual therapy offers a safe, steady space to explore what’s really going on beneath the surface.
This is for the capable, reflective woman who’s always been the strong one — but now feels:
Disconnected from herself
Emotionally drained, numb, exhausted, or overwhelmed
Stuck in cycles she can’t name or fix
Like she’s quietly falling apart inside
Together, we’ll explore the roots of your past that are shaping your present pain, so you can begin to move through it and live with greater freedom. Freedom and peace are possible!
Limited insurance coverage and reduced rate slots available. Varied Session Length Available (55, 90, 120 minutes to promote healing for the deep thinker and processor).
Shame begins to loosen its grip when we speak our stories aloud.
Mental health research shows true healing happens most fully within safe, supportive relationships. That’s why Courageous Healing offers group therapy—a powerful space to grow alongside others who understand you. Virtual groups provide a healing experience through honest reflection and connection.
Each group is thoughtfully facilitated to address your unique needs, combining psychoeducation, real conversation, and trauma-informed practices. You’ll learn new tools, hear relatable stories, and experience the power of showing up as you are—in a safe, supportive, and sacred space.
Group therapy reminds you that your story matters here.
Click here to learn more.
Go Deeper, Heal Faster
You’ve done the surface work. You’ve read the books, tried the coping tools, maybe even gone to therapy before—but something in you knows there’s still more to untangle. You’re ready for focused time, uninterrupted space, and a therapist who can help you get to the root.
Extended Sessions (90–120 minutes) and Therapy Intensives (1–3 days) offer that space. These personalized experiences are designed for women who are ready to move beyond weekly sessions and into deeper, more intentional healing.
Whether you’re processing complex trauma, betrayal, or a recent life event that’s left you shaken, this immersive format creates time to truly slow down, listen inward, and experience lasting change—without rushing back to the rest of life after 50 minutes.
This approach is especially supportive for reflective, deep-thinking, high-functioning women who’ve spent years keeping it all together while quietly falling apart inside. Here, there’s time to breathe, process, and begin again.
You don’t need years of therapy to feel whole again. You need focused time, safe connection, and guidance that helps you move through—not just talk about—your pain.
Hey, I’m Kristen
You’ve done the hard work of holding it all together — for everyone else.
Maybe you were the sensitive one, the responsible one, the one who learned early how to keep the peace and disappear when things got hard.
Or maybe you’re the one who learned to make herself small, so other’s wouldn’t be bothered or inconvenienced.
And maybe, you’ve spent your life caring for others, not minding at first, but have hit a wall when you find yourself wondering, “But who will just care for me sometimes?”
However you’ve navigated life thus far, now you’re finding it just isn’t working. Inside, you’re tired, disconnected, and wondering if anyone truly sees you.
I’m Kristen Humiston — an Advanced Practice Social Worker (APSW), Certified Trauma Professional, Certified Brainspotting Practitioner, and EMDR-trained clinical therapist. I specialize in helping deep-thinking, high-functioning, people-pleasing women heal from trauma, anxiety, grief, and spiritual harm with a compassionate, whole-person approach.
With a background in Christian ministry and extensive experience walking alongside others in pain, I offer a space that’s grounded, safe, and centered on your healing at your pace and in your way— a place where your story can finally be spoken, honored, and healed.
You were never meant to carry it all . Let’s unpack this together so you can begin to live free, and flourish.
What are your specialities?
Finding a therapist who’s a “good fit” for you is essential to your healing and growth.
You may not yet have the words for what’s bothering you—just a sense that something isn’t right. Maybe it’s the constant overthinking. The bone-deep exhaustion. The tears that come out of nowhere. Or the way your body tenses, even when nothing’s technically wrong. You’re showing up in life, but underneath, it feels like you’re unraveling—anxious, shut down, or just not yourself.
I specialize in trauma therapy that goes beyond symptom management to explore the “why” beneath what you’re feeling—and to help you begin healing from the inside out. Whether you’re navigating the impact of childhood emotional neglect, a high-demand faith system, burnout from caregiving, or unprocessed grief or loss, we’ll gently uncover what’s been buried and begin building something new.
Not sure where to begin? That’s okay. Explore my site and reach out with any questions. Whether we work together or I help you find another good fit, I want you to feel supported as you take your next step toward healing.
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“Trauma” encompasses many things coming from any experience, or repeated experiences, that have left your mind and body overwhelmed, terrified, without voice, and without choice.
Whether your trauma happened in childhood or whether it happened last week, the effects in your life can be the same - shut down, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, lack of motivation, and tendency to avoid certain people, places, sounds, or sensations.You don’t have more time to keep being stuck. Working with a skilled therapist is essential to working through whatever trauma has impacted you. Don’t let your past steal one more day of your present - let’s chat!
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Anxiety is a common experience that often shows up as racing thoughts, tightness in the chest, irritability, restlessness, or the feeling that you're never doing enough. But anxiety isn’t just a problem to fix—it’s often a signal.
Together, we’ll gently explore what your body and mind have learned to fear, protect, or anticipate. We’ll work on both calming your nervous system and understanding the deeper roots of your overwhelm.
You’ll learn practical tools to find rest again—not just at night, but in your relationships, faith, and everyday life.
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Navigating life with ADHD or as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) can feel incredibly overwhelming, exhausting, and isolating. Individuals with ADHD may face challenges with focus, organization, impulsivity, and emotional regulation. Highly sensitive individuals often experience heightened emotional intensity, deep processing of experiences, and strong sensory awareness. Both experiences can bring unique strengths — creativity, empathy, intuition, and a capacity for deep insight — alongside real struggles.
I provide a compassionate, trauma-informed approach to help you:
Understand and embrace your neurodivergence or sensitivity
Develop practical tools for managing overwhelm, distractions, and emotional intensity
Create personalized strategies for focus, organization, and self-care
Cultivate self-acceptance and resilience in daily life
Whether your challenges come from sensory overload, attention differences, anxiety, or emotional burnout, I offer space to explore your experience and build strategies that help you live with greater ease, clarity, and peace.
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Depression doesn’t always look like staying in bed all day. Sometimes it looks like holding everything together on the outside while feeling numb, disconnected, or bone-tired on the inside. You might find yourself going through the motions, withdrawing from relationships, or losing interest in the things that used to bring you joy.
Whether your depression stems from long-standing trauma, recent grief, burnout, or simply the weight of carrying too much for too long, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Together, we’ll create space to understand what your symptoms are trying to say — and begin the slow, steady work of healing what’s underneath.
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When you've been hurt in faith spaces—by people, institutions, or teachings that misused spiritual authority—it can be common to experience deep confusion, shame, or a sense of disconnection from God.
Spiritual trauma is real. You might struggle with trust, worthiness, symbols in faith spaces, or even the language of faith itself. I offer a safe, nonjudgmental space to name what hurt, honor your questions, and begin healing the parts of your story that were twisted in the name of God.
Whether you’re untangling spiritual messages, deconstructing, rebuilding, or just weary, we’ll move at your pace—with compassion and clarity.
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Change—even good change—can shake us. Whether you’re navigating a move, job shift, relational changes, motherhood, empty nesting, or menopause, transitions can stir grief, identity questions, and overwhelm.
So often, women feel the pressure to “hold it all together” while their inner world is unraveling. In therapy, we create space to process what’s shifting, name what’s been lost, and clarify what’s next. Together, we’ll honor the season you’re in and help you move through it with groundedness, self-compassion, and purpose.
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Mental health is deeply connected to the body. Sleep, nutrition, hormones, gut health, and inflammation all play a role in how we feel and function. As a clinician working towards certification in nutritional mental health, I bring a holistic lens to our work—recognizing that healing is not just emotional or spiritual, but physical too.
Together, we may explore how nourishment, nervous system regulation, supplementation, or other integrative supports can contribute to your overall well-being. There is no one-size-fits-all solution—but there are real, accessible tools to help you feel more whole.
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Women (perinatal - menopause)
Caregiving Adult Children
Teachers & Nurses
Life Coaches & Therapists
Ministry Workers & Clergy
Adult Children of Clergy/Pastors (PKs, TCKs)