Heather Burgess, LCMHC

Heather Burgess is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) who began practice after earning a master’s degree from Montreat College in 2018. She also holds recognition from the National Board of Certified Counselors and is credentialed as a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist with the North Carolina Addiction Specialist Professional Practice Board, reflecting focused training in both mental health and addiction care.

Her professional background includes work on an ACTT team and with a men’s residential substance use program in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as service as a crisis hospital advocate with Our Voice, Inc. She has delivered continuing-education courses on sex trafficking and currently provides in-home therapy to families where a child or youth is at risk of out-of-home placement. That in-home work uses a systems-based approach that coordinates support across school, home, legal, and social service settings to create meaningful change.

Heather’s clinical practice blends multiple modalities to meet each client’s needs. She draws from Internal Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing, and art-based techniques to address issues such as substance use, trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, anger, personality concerns, and family or parenting challenges. She offers counseling to individuals aged 13 and up and works with blended family dynamics, caregiver stress, codependency, and other relational concerns.

Her approach is integrative and trauma-informed, rooted heavily in CBT while remaining action oriented. Heather aims to empower clients by expanding self-awareness, setting specific treatment goals, and co-creating creative, practical plans for change. She emphasizes nonjudgmental support and validation as clients explore new discoveries and progress toward their goals, and she values each step of that journey.