Healing hearts, Empowering lives

Mycala Cherry is a well-trained mental health counselor with a diverse mix of experience
including wilderness therapy, inpatient, and outpatient settings. She specializes in trauma,
attachment, severe anxiety and depression, ADHD, and behavioral issues. Superficially, these issues may seem diverse and disconnected - but it can be hard to pinpoint where a client's dysregulation is stemming from. With over 7 years of experience with high-acuity clients and families, Mycala is skilled at finding the root cause of dysregulation & maladaptive coping, and connecting the dots between how the nervous system operates and how past challenges and hurts in life are expressed through emotions, symptoms, and relational patterns in the present.

 

Mycala is passionate about working with clients who are experiencing deep emotional struggles in their daily functioning and relationships, and understands the need to focus on repetitive and reliable experiences of co-regulation in addition to healthy coping strategies. She believes that the key to healing trauma, healing shame and self-doubt, improving relationships,

understanding and managing emotions, and reconnecting to inner resilience is already inside you! Mycala will support you on your healing journey through self-discovery, providing challenge in all the right areas, and utilizing evidence-based practices along with a relational approach to help clients face their challenges with bravery. With a focus on family involvement, Mycala prioritizes improving 

communication within the family system, and identifying & resolving unhealthy relational dynamics. She aims to partner with parents as a supportive resource as they work alongside their teens/young adults in treatment.

Mycala earned her Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Georgia State University, and has worked in residential, wilderness, outpatient, and telehealth settings. Mycala is certified in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and certified in Brainspotting (Phases I-III and the Developmental Trauma Model). She is also trained in Trauma-Focused CBT and Trauma-Centered Trauma Sensitive Yoga. Mycala believes there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach in clinical work and will work tirelessly to find the right approach, right psychoeducation, and right coping skills for each client and family. She is dedicated to creating opportunities in every family system for understanding, empathy, and healing. Utilizing Brainspotting Phase III techniques, Mycala is also able to sub-specialize in sports injury trauma and sports performance issues. These techniques can also be applied to functional performance and general life management.

 

Prior to serving for four years as a Lead Clinician in wilderness therapy, Mycala’s passion for using the natural world as a tool for growth and healing grew in her time as a field guide in therapeutic wilderness programs, as well as during her time leading outdoor trips for leadership development and teambuilding during college and graduate school. She has experience facilitating high ropes Challenge Course activities as well as leading expeditions with teens in Alaska, where she also focused on facilitating the development of self-awareness, leadership, and outdoor education.

Mycala loves spending time with her family and friends, snuggling with her dog and cat, and  coaching competitive volleyball. In her free time, you can find her watching sports or doing something to flex her creative muscles such as scrapbooking, photography, or painting.

Jamila Minnifield brings over a decade of experience working children and families, with a specialization in neurodivergence, trauma, adoption & attachment, and complex family dynamics. Jamila excels at weaving creativity, movement, and outdoor connection into her therapeutic coaching approach. She believes in each client's and family's ability to develop the necessary self-awareness to facilitate healing.

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Jamila's clinical expertise includes working with individuals on the Autism Spectrum, ADHD, complex trauma, transracial & intercultural adoption, and systemic family challenges. She is deeply passionate about coaching parents with neurodivergent children, helping them build healthier communication, understand their child's unique needs, and foster resilience and connection within the family. Jamila's experience with clinical and behavioral high-acuity have allowed her to help clients more deeply explore their complex emotions, behaviors, and relational patterns.

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Jamila understands that neurodivergent humans have a keen ability or “superpower” to immediately sense if a person is being genuine and real. And in her practice with kids and families, genuine connection and experiencing emotions is valued over simple “talk therapy”.

As an advocate for diversity in therapeutic spaces, Jamila is passionate about increasing BIPOC representation and addressing the nuances of transracial adoption. She continues to guide parents and families in understanding cultural and identity complexities while embracing positive, experiential strategies for growth.

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Jamila earned her Master's degree in Community Counseling from Argosy University in Atlanta. In her subsequent 8 years of working within Georgia's foster care system, Jamila focused on family reunification and adoption, gaining extensive experience supporting families navigating complex medical, emotional, and developmental challenges. Her strong desire to improve family outcomes led her to wilderness therapy, where for five years she immersed herself in direct care, programming, and clinical leadership. Jamila's community partnership experience has also fueled her passion for finding the right supplemental resources and supports within the industry to help her clients and families thrive. Currently, Jamila also serves adolescents and young adults outside of her practice at Brightstone Transitions in the metro-Atlanta area; she brings her wealth of knowledge and experience to this clinical teams as Director of Guided Transitions.

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Jamila’s strengths include parent coaching, teaching healthy boundaries, conflict resolution, and solution-focused strategies for families. She is intensively trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Person Centered Therapy, and Solution-Focused Therapy. She utilizes Motivational Interviewing techniques and Brainspotting (Phase I-II and the Digging Roots Developmental Trauma Model) practices to facilitate movement with her clients, and non-violent crisis prevention and de-escalation techniques to support a safe environment for her kiddos and families. She is best known for empowering parents to take back their authority while supporting their child through empathy, connection, and holding healthy boundaries.

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In her free time, Jamila can be found hiking with her dogs, fly-fishing, or enjoying other outdoor adventures that inspire her therapeutic practice and reinforce her belief in the healing power of experiential outdoor learning.