Healing Hearts
Licensed professional counselor Dawn White is here to mend the mental health of our community
In today’s unsettling pandemic world, it’s more important than ever to feed our minds, bodies and souls with positive mental health.
Dawn White, LPC (licensed professional counselor) at Dawn White Counseling, LLC, is helping to nurture that mentality. It’s what she was called to do 12 years ago.
“I think it’s becoming more true, with all of this, that when a person decides they need counseling, it’s not a red flag that there’s something wrong,” says White. “It’s more about the decision to take care of themselves, like a mental gym. It’s really a healthy thing to do. You’re taking care of yourself, just like we take care of ourselves with cardiac rehabilitation or physical therapy. This is just a way to process things that have happened in a positive way and in a safe, confidential environment.
“The biggest thing, recently, is that I’ve tried to help people recognize what a big loss this is,” she continues. “It all comes under the whole category of loss and adjustment. It’s just helping them understand that the emotions they’re feeling are completely normal. … That confusion in the end, even the anger, is coming from the whiplash and how suddenly all this stopped. That’s the biggest thing: the whole component of loss and going through the grieving process.”
Before becoming a counselor, White, with a degree in health education and a minor in biology, worked for 24 years in the school system as a science teacher. She taught students in about five different schools in the area, and loved what she did for her students, but got burnt out, she says.
“I told my husband that I was just ready for a break,” says White. “I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I’d figure something else out.”
It was at a roundtable discussion held at a church deacon couples’ retreat in Walterboro that led White to the answer.
“Dr. Dan Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church at the time, asked Dr. Travis Novinger what he saw as the biggest healthcare need in our area,” she says. “Dr. Novinger said that we need more counselors for the mental health in our area. He said that, largely, people have to go to Charlotte, Florence or Columbia, and they may have a good experience, but they don’t want to commit to the time and money it takes to continue to go out of town. And he said if he had somebody in the area that he could refer people to for their broken hearts, then he wouldn’t see so many broken heart-related health problems in his office. … And that statement struck me and became kind of my theme.”
After many prayers and soul-searching, White enrolled at Columbia International University to earn her second master’s in clinical counseling and marriage and family therapy in 2010. After becoming fully licensed, she followed through and worked in Dr. Novinger’s office for seven years, but soon felt the growing pains and space to take her young clients outside for play therapy.
Becoming empty nesters after her grown son flew the coop, White and her husband discussed moving her office onto their 50-acre property in Chesterfield County. And, for the past year, her dream became reality, as Dawn White Counseling has operated in the front part of the couple’s home, with the back part – after remodeling – serving as their living quarters. The office boasts a playroom, art area, even outdoor garden rooms complete with a privacy fence.
“I love it,” she says. “And I can actually be outside with clients, which has come in handy the last couple of weeks because we’ve been sitting in those gardens or on the porch instead of coming in, for methods of distancing. The whole mindfulness part of it is so cool because clients can be outside and listen to the birds, feel the breeze – I’ve had so many say, ‘This is so peaceful.’”
White counsels with individual clients, couples and families, using cognitive-behavioral therapy, emotionally focused therapy, psychotherapy, and art and play therapy techniques. She also provides programs for community groups on anxiety, depression, parenting, and grief. Her areas of specialization include women’s issues, children, adolescents, couples and families. She’s currently working on a certificate in trauma therapy.
“I’m always going to trainings,” says White. “I want to continue learning, and I want to be on my game with the clients.”
White says she does implement guidance from her Christian faith into her counseling, but clients of all beliefs, or non-beliefs, are more than welcome to sit down with her.
“If someone comes in feeling really stressed and overwhelmed and leaves feeling relieved and lighter, that’s like a little checkmark for me that they found a safe place to talk,” says White. “It’s not anything I’ve done. I’m never going to tell them what to do. … I point things out along the way or ask them if they ever thought about it this way and I want to be there.”
On the other hand, White says a challenging part of her line of work is finding a way to help clients who are “stuck” or, clinically, struggling with “resistance to change.”
“I know it’s not the person, it’s truly the fear of change,” she says. “Change is hard, and change is very scary. But I can’t force a person to change until they’re ready to make the change themselves. It’s my job to be the consistent place of safety for the client, yet, I always have huge hope there will be new courage to pull out of the stuck place. I never give up on a client.”
In addition to growing her practice, White would like to host small retreats at her office. Look for her to appear as a columnist here on COUNTY in the near future as well.
If you’d like to schedule an appointment in person or via TeleHealth with White, call 843-287-0745 or visit https://sdlwhite.wixsite.com/dawnwhitecounseling.
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