About Mary Allison

For Mary Allison Cates, transformation is both an art and a science. Her therapy combines cutting-edge research and clinically-proven therapeutic techniques with playful ways of strengthening clients’ intuition and innate goodness. Mary Allison has over fifteen years of experience working with people seeking wholeness in college campus, treatment center, hospital, elder-care, inner-city, and congregational settings. She works with adults, 18 and older, who are seeking healing from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Developmental Trauma, attachment wounds, spiritual trauma, and fertility issues as well as those in the process of vocational discernment, and those transitioning to new life stages such as parenthood or retirement.

Mary Allison holds a Bachelors Degree from Rhodes College, a Masters Degree in Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School, and a TN state license (#1411) in Marriage and Family Therapy. She uses her family systems training to help clients understand their families of origin as well the many diverse and often outspoken parts of themselves. In addition, Mary Allison is a certified yoga instructor (RYT 200). Her hobbies include making art, hiking, reading, cooking, practicing yoga, and adventuring with her husband and sons.

About the Work

COVID19 UPDATE: Mary Allison holds a Certificate in Digital Confidentiality from Person-Centered Tech and conducts virtual telehealth sessions with clients via Doxy.me, a HIPAA-secure healthcare platform.

Mary Allison mines the client’s meaning system, world view, and life story to find entry points for transformation and healing. The methods used include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Art as Therapy, Spiritual Direction, Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Family Systems Therapy, Marital Therapy, Trauma Sensitive Yoga (40-hour training), Internal Family Systems Therapy, Creative Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Experiential Therapy, and a host of other tools. The subject matter and goals of each session will be determined by the client, and the methods used will be chosen according to the client’s interests, comfort level, and learning style.

Though therapy is a co-operation between client and therapist, healing comes from magnifying the client’s own inner strengths and resources through the therapeutic process. Some of this process occurs within therapy sessions and some of it occurs between sessions, as clients practice inviting hidden parts of the self to emerge amidst the details of daily living.