About Katie Grant, MS, LCPC, LMHC, LPC, CCTP-II, EMDRIA cert

Katie's solo private practice began in 2013 in the Safety Building, downtown Rock Island, IL.  Katie is a white, fat, bisexual, chronically ill, cis female survivor of childhood emotional and sexual abuse who is on her own perpetual journey of healing and self-knowing.  She values access to quality therapy for all human beings regardless of financial and other barriers. Therefore, she accepts Medicaid, has a sliding fee scale based on income, and finds ways to contribute to community healing. Katie has experiences working in community mental health alongside psychiatrists, in a program for survivors of sexual trauma and their loved ones, and in home and community based services for the disabled (particularly intellectually disabled folks requiring supervised living).  She has also provided contracted therapy to children and families at Rock Island County Children's Advocacy Center.  She is continually learning through formal trainings, reading, and workshops to be able to bring as many effective options for healing and growth to the clients she serves as possible.  In 2021, Katie began providing education as well, through partnership with the Illinois Counseling Association.  She also began participating in voluntary leadership in the Illinois Association for Specialists in Group Work.  Katie is licensed to independently practice counseling in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Oregon.  She is a Certified EMDR Therapist and Consultant-in-training through EMDRIA (EMDR International Association), a certified EMDR-Sandtray Specialist from AGATE, and a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Level II--Complex Trauma from Evergreen.

Katie's graduate program, Western Illinois University Psychology, Counseling/Community Mental Health, provided a strong foundation for her in Client-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Existential Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy.  Her extensive post-graduate training has focused most on trauma assessment and treatment, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing),  TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), Ego State Therapy, CFTSI (Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention), somatic (body-focused) therapy techniques, and a lot of ways to think about and work with dissociative disorders and DID (Dissociative Identity Disorders).  She also does all the training she can fit in on working with LGBTQ+ issues, particularly transgender mental health.  Affirmative counseling for LGBTQ+ people is standard.  Katie considers herself a Client-Centered Therapist at the heart of all of her work, which means she believes clients can find most of the answers they seek inside of themselves, and her job as a therapist is to help you know yourself better and find and USE those resources.  It also means clients direct therapy in terms of goals and content.  Katie also incorporates techniques from art and play therapy (even with grown-ups!), and uses sandtray therapy frequently.  She especially enjoys facilitating group therapy because of the unique growth opportunities it provides.  Katie really loves EMDR because it seems to provide results that talk therapy just can't.  But she knows that every human is unique and no single therapy theory or technique can provide what each and every person seeking help needs.  She welcomes immediate (and delayed) feedback from clients and creatively adjusts her approach based on that information.  She also relies on observation and her real-time inner experience of her nervous system's response to that of the client(s) for powerful data regarding how the client is receiving the information or invitations she offers.  More important than anything she can offer as an "expert" are her authenticity and ability to listen, and give the gift of uninterrupted attention and compassion in a safe(r) space without judgment, allowing a client to feel seen, heard, and respected as an expert on their own life.