Browse and download our complimentary resources.
What Clients Can Expect
Beginning therapy can feel like a big step, and my goal is to make the process feel safe, supportive, and approachable. From our first session, we will work together to understand your experiences, identify your goals, and create a path toward healing that feels right for you.
My therapeutic style is collaborative, compassionate, and trauma-informed. I believe you are the expert on your own life, and my role is to provide guidance, support, and evidence-based tools to help you better understand yourself, navigate challenges, and build on your existing strengths.
In our work together, you can expect a nonjudgmental and affirming environment where you feel heard, respected, and valued. I strive to create a space where you can be your authentic self, explore difficult experiences at your own pace, and develop greater resilience, self-awareness, and hope for the future.
Paula Johnson, LCSW, CCTP, CFTP
Meet Paula
Hi, I'm Paula.
I believe therapy is a collaborative journey where you can feel heard, supported, and empowered to create meaningful change. Before becoming a therapist, I spent more than 25 years leading and mentoring others in the corporate world. While I valued helping people grow professionally, I felt called to support individuals in a deeper, more personal way.
That calling became clear while volunteering at a crisis center, where I witnessed the profound impact compassionate mental health care can have during life's most difficult moments. It confirmed my passion for helping others heal.
As both a trauma survivor and a therapist, I understand the courage it takes to begin the healing process. My lived experience, combined with clinical training and professional expertise, allows me to provide compassionate, trauma-informed care grounded in empathy, respect, and hope.
My goal is to create a safe, supportive space where you feel understood and empowered as you move toward healing and lasting change.
Professional Trainings
- Deep Brain Reorienting Level 3-Dr. Frank Corrigan.
- Brainspotting Consultant Training 9 month Program-Cherie Lindberg, PHD.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level 1
- Advanced EMDRIA EMDR training in relational & attachment EMDR.
- Advance BSP Training-Mindful Co-Regulation.
- Advanced BSP P.T.S.D. and Parts Work.
- Advanced Stress Studies - Bessel Van der Kolk.
- Deep Brain Reorienting Level 1 and 2- Dr. Jessica Christine-Sand
- Advance BSP Training-From Freeze to Thaw.
- Emergency Responder and Public Safety Certified Clinician.
- Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners Clinical Supervisor
- Advanced EMDRIA Consultant-in-Training Program-EMDR Consulting
- Advanced Training in Structural Dissociation- Healing the Whole Self- Part 1 and 2 Sarah Jenkins.
- Brainspotting Phase 1,2, 3 & 4.
- Advanced EMDR Sand Tray Therapy- Ana Gomez.
- Advanced Training EMDR and Grief.
- Neurobiology of Grief.
- Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP).
- Trauma Treatment Certification Training-Janina Fisher.
- Adult Attachment Relationships-Jana Pressley, PsyD.
- Certified Child and Adolescent Trauma Professional (CATP).
- 2018 Certified Family Trauma Professional- Arizona Trauma Institute-Robert Rhoton, Psy. D. (CFTP).
- 2018 EMDRIA Approved EMDR Basic Training by Dr. Robbie Tapia, Tapia Counseling.
Professional Experience
Paula brings a wealth of experience supporting children, adolescents, and adults across a variety of behavioral health settings. Throughout her career, she has worked in community mental health, the Department of Child Safety, psychiatric hospitals, Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP), Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP), and outpatient group settings. These diverse experiences have equipped her to meet clients where they are, providing compassionate, individualized care while supporting them through a wide range of life challenges and mental health concerns.
Joel Anderson
Hi, I'm Joel Anderson,
an MSW Candidate at Liberty University and a clinical intern at Encouraging Hand Trauma Counseling, working toward licensure.
I specialize in supporting public safety professionals, athletes, and their families through the pressures and demands of high-performance, high-scrutiny careers.
My clinical foundation is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and I continue to train in additional modalities, including EMDR, Brainspotting, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, to expand what I can offer clients as my training deepens.
What stays consistent, regardless of technique, is a direct, no-nonsense approach paired with genuine empathy and compassion.
My work is built around three connected areas:
identity transitions, performance stress, and trauma and recovery.
I work with individuals navigating injuries, retirement, burnout, trauma, and the loss of identity that comes with stepping away from their career or sport. I support clients through the psychological weight of trauma and the physical toll that shows up in the body.
The people I work with are often defined, publicly and privately, by what they do and how well they do it. Their performance is watched, measured, and expected, whether that means running toward danger on the job or performing under a stadium lights. What rarely gets attention is the person underneath the role:
the accumulated weight of stress and exposure that gets carried quietly, often without the person even recognizing it, until it starts shaping how they show up in every other part of their life.
My goal is to help clients become balanced as whole people, not just capable professionals or competitors, so they can continue to excel in the roles they currently hold while also building
genuine confidence in who they are apart from them.
Before pursuing my MSW, I competed as a national-level boxer, national-level powerlifter, and Division I wrestler, and spent over 24 years in public safety. I hold a Masters degree in Leadership with an advanced graduate certificate in Performance Psychology, and I'm a member of the Alliance of Social Workers in Sports (ASWIS).
This combination of lived experience and
clinical training allows me to recognize the overlap between the demanding, closely scrutinized culture of public safety and the demanding, closely scrutinized culture of competitive sports. Clients from these worlds often find they don't have to explain themselves to me before we can get to work.
I've been married for 25 years, and my family includes three children and two boxer dogs who keep the house lively.
Joel is supervised by Paula Johnson and is currently accepting new clients. He will begin scheduling appointments in September.
Joel's session fee is $60 per session.
To learn more or determine whether Joel is a good fit for your needs, please contact our office at 480-772-6965. We would be happy to answer your questions and help you schedule an appointment.