​
Ashley Mott
The messy, imperfect beauty of life inspires me. I am drawn to working with people who are working to find their way through the places where life becomes uncertain, painful, or asks us to become someone new. This might happen through becoming a parent, beginning or ending an intimate relationship, experiencing grief or chronic illness, or simply realizing that old patterns and ways of living no longer fit who you are becoming. I also have a particular interest in working with adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional families.
​
Our earliest relationships shape us in profound ways. We learn how to adapt and function within the families we are given. Often these ways of adapting are intelligent and necessary. Yet we may carry them into adulthood long after we need them, finding ourselves disconnected from our own feelings and needs, repeating familiar patterns in relationships, or struggling to understand why certain experiences affect us as deeply as they do.
​
Therapy offers us an opportunity to become more deeply acquainted with ourselves. I believe there is wisdom in our thoughts and emotions, but also in our bodies and in the parts of our experience that can be difficult to put into words. I offer gentleness, spaciousness, curiosity, and focused attention as we explore what is happening within you and between us. Together, we can notice habitual ways of thinking, feeling, protecting, and relating with greater compassion and less judgment.
​
I don't believe the difficult or messy parts of ourselves need to be pushed away for us to heal. Shame, fear, grief, confusion, anger, uncertainty, and discomfort are all part of being human. When we can meet more of our experience with curiosity and compassion, rather than immediately trying to change or escape it, we often discover greater freedom in how we respond to ourselves and to the people around us. With awareness comes choice, and with greater relationship to ourselves often comes a deeper capacity for connection, nourishment, ease, and joy.
​
At the heart of my work is the belief that therapy does not require you to arrive as a different or more put together version of yourself. You are welcome to bring the uncertainty, contradictions, discomfort, and unfinished parts of your life with you. Our work begins by becoming curious about who you are, what has shaped you, and what your experience may be asking of you now. As you deepen your relationship with yourself, new possibilities can emerge for how you relate, how you choose, and how you move through your life.
​
My approach is relational, embodied, and contemplative. I have specific training in Modern Psychoanalysis, a relational approach that helps us explore and work through past relational experiences within the therapeutic relationship itself. I am also a certified Mindfulness Instructor, a trained birth and postpartum Doula, and a certified yoga teacher. These experiences continue to shape my understanding of the relationship between mind and body, the importance of being deeply accompanied during periods of transition, and the healing that can happen when we feel safe enough to encounter more of ourselves.
I have worked in the mental health field since 2008 and feel tremendously fortunate to have worked alongside many resilient, creative, and unique adults, teenagers, and children. I earned my bachelor's degree in Psychology from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and my Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Naropa University's three year Contemplative Psychotherapy program in Boulder, Colorado. I am a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in North Carolina, license number 13940.
​
​
Family of Origin • Life Transitions • Parenthood • Grief & Illness • Relationships • Embodiment
Sessions are currently being conducted remotely, by either phone or video with some in-person availability.
Telephone: (828) 974-1305
​Please be in touch and I look forward to connecting!