If you’ve been searching for counseling in Charlotte, NC, there’s a good chance you’ve been thinking carefully about what kind of support actually fits your life. At Montgomery Counseling Group, that question is one we take seriously too. We’re a trauma-informed practice built on the idea that healing already lives inside each person, and that the right therapeutic relationship helps bring it forward.
That philosophy shapes everything here, from the clinicians we bring on to the way we approach a first session.
What Counseling in Charlotte, NC Can Look Like
Counseling isn’t one thing. At Montgomery Counseling Group, it looks different depending on who you are, what you’re carrying, and what kind of support fits your life.
For some people, that means individual therapy to work through trauma, anxiety, or depression. For others, it’s couples work to rebuild communication after conflict. For families navigating a major transition, it might mean sessions that bring multiple people into the room together. For parents whose child is struggling at school or at home, it could mean play therapy or EMDR with a clinician trained specifically in children and adolescent development.
What stays consistent across all of it: we meet you where you are.
The Range of Support We Offer
Individual Therapy
Understanding each person’s needs, strengths, and how they fit within the broader systems around them is the foundation of our practice. Individual therapy is one way we do that work. Whether you’re processing something from the past or navigating what’s happening right now, individual sessions offer a focused space to explore what matters most to you.
Couples and Family Counseling
Relationships hold some of our deepest pain and some of our greatest capacity for healing. Understanding different types of relationships and what healthy connection can look like is often part of the work. Our clinicians work with Couples and Family Counseling clients to improve communication, resolve conflict, and strengthen connection, including with blended families, co-parenting situations, and systems navigating major life changes.
Children, Adolescents, and Parents
Young people often communicate through behavior long before they can name what they’re feeling. Our clinicians use developmentally appropriate approaches, including play therapy and EMDR, to support children and teens. We also help parents understand what their child is experiencing and how to respond.
Men’s Counseling
Many men carry their experiences quietly for years before reaching out. We offer a space that is direct, non-pathologizing, and genuinely useful. Not just for processing, but for building something different.
Medical Trauma
A serious illness, a difficult diagnosis, or an unexpected medical crisis can leave lasting imprints that don’t resolve on their own. These experiences shape how people feel in their bodies, how they relate to others, and how they move forward. Learning more about healing from childhood trauma and its long-term effects can provide useful context. Trauma-informed care creates space for that kind of healing.
Want to understand what your sessions might cost? Visit our Rates & Insurance page to learn about coverage options before booking. |
Our Clinical Approach
Montgomery Counseling Group is grounded in trauma-informed care. That means we understand how experience shapes the nervous system, how the body holds what the mind tries to set aside, and how healing happens through relationship as much as technique. We draw on evidence-based approaches that are well-researched and consistently effective.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is central to much of what we do. It is an evidence-based approach that helps people process traumatic memories in a way that reduces their charge and allows for genuine movement. Beyond EMDR, our team brings a range of approaches: expressive therapies, mindfulness, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), play therapy, and relational work grounded in family systems theory.
The Clinicians at MCG
Our team brings diverse specializations and perspectives together under one clinical philosophy: that people are resilient, that healing is possible, and that the therapeutic relationship is the foundation everything else is built on.
John Burns, MSW, LCSW
Founder and lead clinician. John Burns specializes in complex and developmental trauma and holds EMDRIA Approved Consultant status, meaning he trains and supervises other clinicians in EMDR therapy. He also practices Clinical Hypnosis using the Ericksonian approach and works with Internal Family Systems.
Taylor Banner, LCSWA
Taylor Banner specializes in marriage and family counseling, child and family welfare, and domestic violence advocacy. Her approach draws on family systems frameworks and focuses on identifying unhelpful relational patterns, strengthening communication, and building connections that hold over time.
Michelle Daley, LCMHC
Michelle Daley specializes in children and adolescents and is trained in both Play Therapy and EMDR. Her clinical focus includes ADHD, autism, parent-child relationships, and school avoidance. Michelle is also a Navy Veteran, and her background informs a grounded, practical approach to care.
Moriah Yager, LCSWA
Moriah Yager works with adolescents and adults in individual and group settings. Her person-centered approach incorporates expressive therapies, mindfulness, mapping, and skill building. She specializes in medical trauma, loss, and life transitions.
Javontae Bradley, LCMHCA
Javontae Bradley specializes in men’s issues, trauma-informed care, and culturally responsive psychotherapy. He also works with older adults, individuals with special needs, and children. His approach is practical and culturally grounded, making space for the full complexity of each person’s experience.
Naila McConnell, LCMHCA
Naila McConnell is a Certified Dialectical Behavior Therapist and trained in AF-CBT (Alternatives for Families), a trauma-informed approach for families navigating high conflict or a history of physical aggression. She provides therapy to adults, children, adolescents, couples, and families addressing mental health and substance use concerns.
What to Expect in a First Session
The first session isn’t a test. It’s a conversation. If you have questions beforehand, our FAQs page answers many common ones. Your clinician will want to understand what’s been happening for you, what’s brought you here now, and what you’re hoping for. They’ll explain how they work and what the process typically looks like. You’ll have space to ask questions.
No one expects you to share everything in the first hour. The goal is to gauge whether this feels like the right fit, and to start building the kind of trust that makes real work possible.
Common Concerns We Work With
People come to counseling in Charlotte NC for a wide range of reasons. Some have a specific event or period they want to process. Others are experiencing patterns they can’t seem to shift. Common areas we work with include:
- Trauma, PTSD, and complex trauma
- Anxiety and persistent worry
- Depression and mood concerns
- Relationship and communication challenges
- Men’s issues and identity
- Children’s behavioral and emotional concerns
- Medical trauma and life-altering illness
- Grief, loss, and major life transitions
- Sleep disruption and body-based signals of distress
How Change Actually Happens
The person who has carried something too long
Imagine someone who has been managing anxiety for most of their adult life. They’ve read the books, tried the breathing exercises, maybe even done therapy before. But something hasn’t shifted. In trauma-informed work, the goal isn’t to stay in managing mode indefinitely. It’s to get underneath what’s driving it. When that pattern gets addressed at its root, the anxiety has less ground to stand on.
The couple who stopped talking
Picture two people who love each other but have been living parallel lives for years. They don’t fight much anymore. They also don’t connect. Couples counseling at MCG isn’t about assigning blame or prescribing a formula. It’s about helping two people understand what happened between them, and whether they want to rebuild something.
The family navigating a hard season
Consider a family where a teenager has started pulling away, grades have dropped, and everyone is tense but no one knows how to talk about it. Family counseling creates a place to say what’s hard to say at home. The goal isn’t to fix anyone. It’s to help the whole system understand itself a little better, so the people inside it can breathe again.
Taking the First Step Toward Counseling in Charlotte NC
Reaching out can feel like a big move. Our office is located just south of Uptown Charlotte near the Park Road Shopping Center. For those who prefer to meet remotely, we offer telehealth for clients anywhere in North Carolina.
You don’t have to have everything figured out before you reach out. Contact Montgomery Counseling Group to schedule a consultation and talk with one of our clinicians about what support might look like for you.
Ready to Take the First Step?Schedule your free consultation today — counseling in Charlotte, NC from a team that meets you where you are. |
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