About

Dr. DeGraff is a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical supervisor (LMFT-S) in Austin, Texas who has been working in the industry for 10+ years. She earned her bachelor's degree in Community, Family, and Addiction Services in 2011 from Texas Tech University where she focused on social services program development and evaluation. In 2013 she earned her clinical master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Texas Tech where she focused on individual, couples, and family therapy, addiction disorders, and recovery studies, as well as financial counseling and planning. In 2019 she earned her doctorate degree in Human Development and Family Science from the University of Georgia, where she researched the intersections of mental health, relationship health, and financial health.

She has extensive experience in the treatment industry working with individuals, couples, and families. Additionally, she has taught classes at the University of Georgia, worked as a researcher in the academic setting, and contracted as a researcher and policy analyst in the non-profit sector.

In her practice, she specializes in working with professionals. She understands that the same traits that make professionals successful (e.g., highly intelligent, over-analyzers, leadership skills, charisma, etc.) can be the same traits that get and keep folks stuck in personal matters. Her philosophy of therapy (see below) has demonstrated success with a variety of professionals, including but not limited to mental health professionals, academics, medical doctors and nurses, business owners and executives, first responders, military members, and veterans.

Dr. DeGraff aims to promote change by growth via individuation and new experiencing that breaks down rigidity and stuckness. People’s experiences are viewed as symbolic and when these symbols become rigid, they inhibit the new experiences that promote growth and adaptation. Motives are conceptualized as being constructed from available and relevant meanings, and people are motivated to create meanings to help them develop and make sense of their world. To understand motivation and development, we must first understand the meanings behind actions, thoughts, and emotions. Inherent in this philosophy of therapy are two assumptions: people get to define the context and meaning of their action in any given situation, and those people have developing and changing minds with intentions. Lastly, environment and social contexts are deeply explored as the places in which actions are based, informed by, but not because of past interactions.

This process of therapy implies that change occurs through the breakdown of rigidity and widening of potential for diverse experience via stimulation of symbolic content and development of symbolic experience. New ways of experiencing self and others allow for one to be able to challenge unhelpful, rigid interpretations of meanings and purpose and promote individuation.

This model of therapy is particularly beneficial for those that have tried more common therapy modalities and wish to go deeper; for the intellectual and professional population that experience analysis-paralysis and perfectionism; and for the client that desires a more meaningful therapy experience. Because the emphasis is on providing new experiences in the room, rather than employing analytics or logic, you'll be getting out of your head and actually doing and being in the change.