About Austin Counseling and Trauma Specialists

 About Us

We are so glad you have chosen to consider us to help! We know it helps to know about the people and the place you may choose to do your counseling work so feel free to explore our website and Contact Us any time for more information. You can learn about all of our team members in the Meet Our Team Members tab.


Russell started working the mental health field before the turn of the 21st century! That makes him sound really old, but it was just a couple of decades ago...does that help make him sound younger? Regardless, he knew that he wanted to be able to have a place where healing could happen. The vision was to help people heal their mind, body and spirit. What he didn't know was how his experiences in his career would mold his practice but his early experience in trauma work quickly grabbed his attention and became his passion and focus for much of his career. Today, the center is focused on trauma and we want to help as many people as we can, so we make sure that everyone in the practice has training and experience in trauma work and most are trained in EMDR or other types of trauma treatment.

We also want to be well balanced and be able to help those who wish to address things other than trauma. To that point, we bring in therapists with varied experience and specialty interests like grief and loss, yoga, mindfulness, bariatric issues, first responders, teens/adolescents, kink, poly relationships, suicidality, and more! We also make sure there are different types of education and licenses among our staff, like LPCs, LMFTs, LCSWs, LPC-Associates and even Student Interns (watch our YouTube video on the different types of licenses/credentials). We will continue to expand and bring in other professionals too. You can learn more about our services in the Services / Specialties tab. 

We want to help the whole individual heal. While we eventually want to offer other services like massage, acupuncture, cranial sacral, reiki, etc., for now we have great referrals for those services! We even have good referrals for doctors, surgeons, psychiatrists, and others too. 

Reach out to our Cedar Park Tx office today to see how we can help you!

What's the deal with the Elephants?

I know you are seeing a lot of elephants on our site and might wonder why. Mostly, I love elephants! It's also convenient that when addressing an issue people will often say they need to address the "elephant in the room"! For me, the elephant is the perfect symbol to incorporate into this Practice! I knew if I ever owned a business an elephant would be in the logo and now it has come to life! The image in our logo uses lots of unique shapes and pieces to bring together a complete image of an elephant. That symbolizes to me how people are created of their many parts and experiences that make them the entire being they are today. The symbol in the middle of the elephant is Gnosa, a symbol used to describe the connection to our higher self to allow clarity for us to understand the origins of our pain and trauma so that we may heal that pain and trauma. 

Elephants are majestic and peaceful creatures. They are gentle giants who can hold their own when they need to. They are often known for their memory but they are so much more. They have feelings and emotions, like grief and mourning, and even appear to have self-awareness, compassion and empathy according to some research and documentaries. They fiercely protect their young, they are social beings and they even have to deal with trauma from poaching. Their size is impressive, and fascinatingly, they are still gentle and delicate beings. 

​So, any elephants in the room that you want to address?

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