About Anna Watkins, MSW, LCSW
Anna has over 20 years of experience working with older adults and their families across the spectrum of care. She understands dementia care, mental health challenges unique to adult adults, and the emotional challenges of transitioning from work to retirement to needing care support. Anna’s greatest honor was to be a caregiver for her grandmother, and she draws on that first hand knowledge to support other caregivers through that knowledge.
Anna holds a masters degree in Social Work from UNC-CH with a concentration in geriatrics. She has worked in Adult Day Care, Long Term Care, and Inpatient Geropsychiatry. Anna got her feet wet in private practice therapy working exclusively with clients facing vision loss.
In her free time, Anna enjoys being outside in nature. She enjoys gardening for wildlife among the shade trees at her home, and she volunteers at her children’s school vegetable garden. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about reciprocity in her book “Braiding Sweetgrass.” Anna agrees that humans are not separate from nature, but an integral part of it, and we have a responsibility to care for it as it cares for us.
Anna also draws wisdom from her personal life and her family to strengthen her social work practice. She manages chronic pain from hypermobile joints. Through people close to her, she has first hand experience with ADHD, Depression, OCD, trauma, and Bipolar Disorder, substance abuse, stroke recovery, cancer, heart disease, and hospice care.
Anna helps with:
CAREGIVER STRESS
ADJUSTING TO AGE RELATED CHANGES
ANXIETY
DEPRESSION
COGNITIVE CONCERNS
CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT
PRESERVING INDEPENDENCE
LONG TERM CARE TRANSITIONS
COPING WITH CHRONIC HEALTH ISSUES
VISION LOSS
AND MORE…
THERAPY MODALITIES
There’s overlap with many of today’s psychotherapeutic modalities, so Anna uses a mixture of them to meet your unique needs.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT)
Trauma Focused Therapy
Reminiscence & Narrative Therapy
Attachment Theory
Polyvagal Theory and Mind/Body Connections
The Oak Tree is a metaphor for a life well lived. As a keystone species, a mature tree supports 2,300 wildlife species from caterpillars to fungi, providing food for birds and small mammals, giving shelter in its’ branches and under it’s fallen leaves. It literally breathes life. It has purpose. It lives in connection with its environment, and it’s strength and flexibility helps the tree survive storms.