About

My name is Deena Crawford. I grew up in Jackson, MS and went to Murrah High School--a proud Mustang! After attending the University of Southern Mississippi, I began teaching at Oak Grove High School. I realized that I was not inspired by the teaching part but really enjoyed my interactions with the students. I decided to got to graduate school and get a Master's in a field that I could work with adolescents. My degree in social work led me to an internship at a mental health inpatient stabilizing unit and six years of working in a variety of positions at a behavioral health and addiction treatment center. I was hired at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) as a counselor just two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. I eventually was named director of USM's Student Counseling Services and stayed there for fifteen years. I recently decided to start my own private practice and am looking forward to building a practice with a variety of different kind of clients. I am a relational therapist--using family systems, modern psychotherapy, and the strengths approach to assist people in identifying their problems and walking beside them as they figure out their journey. I use my own life experience as a child of a single mother, a trauma survivor, the varied, rich journeys of my previous clients and a some "book learning" to offer support, skills, and solutions.

A metaphor might help you get a sense of how I approach a client’s counseling needs. Think of life as taking a walk. It is normal to keep looking behind you just in case there is an angry dog following you, especially if we have experienced that before. It is also easy to look off into the distance and try to anticipate any angry dogs that might come up in the future. However, as we are preoccupied looking back and into the distance, we could stumble and maybe even fall in some quicksand. It would be a natural reaction to pull and struggle to get out. That is exactly what not to do in quicksand. With quicksand, there is only one option for survival—to spread the weight of your body over a large surface area – lay down. Instead, we are struggling in the quicksand, sinking deeper and looking backward and forward. Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?!
Sometimes we are so focused on our past, that we neglect the present, and wonder why we keep falling flat on our faces. Or perhaps we are so attentive to anticipating dangers up ahead, we trip and stumble our way through life. Instinctively, we struggle against our distress in a way that puts us in danger, not realizing we are making it worse.

Thankfully, some insight, support, and new skills lead to solutions and an ability to enjoy the present, no matter what the circumstances--that is where I come in. If it sounds like I can help you figure some things out, please let me know!

Right now my schedule for Find A Therapist sessions is limited to the following: Monday, 7 pm; Tuesday 7 pm; Wednesday 9am-7 pm; Thursday 5:30-7 pm; Saturday 9am-4 pm. All times are CST. If my schedule fits your schedule, please let me know.