Mental Lift

Healing That Honors Your Strength—Without the Struggle

Trauma Therapy for Women of Color in NC, TX, SC, & FL

You’ve carried everything. But who’s carried you?

You’ve mastered survival. You've held it down for everyone else—your family, your partner, your work—while silently holding the weight of trauma, grief, shame, and the crushing pressure to be strong. You’ve pushed through heartbreaks, high-functioning anxiety, and breakdowns no one saw. You’ve said “I’m fine” when you were anything but.

And even now, you’re wondering if you’re allowed to fall apart.
If you’re allowed to ask for help.
If you deserve to heal.

Let me be clear: you do.

Healing isn’t weakness. It’s the bravest, most powerful thing you’ll ever do.

It’s no longer about pushing through. It’s about finally choosing yourself.

  • Choosing rest without guilt

  • Choosing boundaries without apology

  • Choosing peace over people-pleasing

  • Choosing to release what trauma told you was yours to carry

You are not broken. You’re burdened.
And therapy is where we lay some of that burden down.

This is your space to be seen, heard, and supported—without judgment or pressure to be perfect.
You’ve spent your life showing up for everyone else. Now it’s time to show up for you.

Let’s rewrite the story together.

How I Can Help

At Mental Lift, sessions are designed to support women who are ready to heal, grow, and reconnect with themselves. If you’ve been carrying emotional weight on your own for too long, therapy can provide a space to release, reflect, and rebuild. Each session is 50 minutes and focused on one or more of the following:

  • A woman with curly hair and glasses is sitting on a couch, writing in a large yellow notebook. A lamp and bed are visible in the background, suggesting she is in a cozy room.

    Trauma

    Trauma doesn’t live only in memory—it lives in the body. In the tightening of your chest. In the way you flinch at closeness. In the arguments that feel like life or death.


    This isn’t weakness—it’s a nervous system still trying to protect you.


    Learn how trauma therapy helps you understand the impact of past experiences on your relationships, emotional regulation, and sense of safety in your body.

  • Woman walking outdoors with shopping bags, wearing a white off-shoulder top and black pants, surrounded by greenery.

    Anxiety & Self-Doubt

    This discomfort you’re feeling? It’s not a breakdown—it’s a breakthrough.


    You’re shedding the pressure to be perfect, productive, or palatable. You're starting to unlearn survival patterns that once protected you—and outgrew you.
    It’s scary. It’s unfamiliar. And it’s sacred.


    Learn how therapy for anxiety helps you break free from old survival patterns and start becoming who you’re truly meant to be.

  • Person sitting at a round white table in a room with wooden floor, petting a calico cat. There's a laptop, notebook, and a cup on the table. Behind them is a white cabinet with various decorative objects and books.

    Grief

    You’ve been running on autopilot for years, holding everyone else together while quietly unraveling. You may be grieving the things you never received. The person you had to become. The parts of you that had no room to breathe.


    Grief doesn’t always look like tears. It can show up as fatigue, numbness, or the heaviness that no one else sees.


    Discover how grief therapy can help you process the quiet losses that still feel heavy.

Heal & Lift

Meet Your Therapist:

Katrina Wilkes, LCSW

Smiling woman with curly hair wearing a light blue blazer and jeans, sitting on a couch in a room with white walls.

You don’t need a therapist who makes you explain everything.
You need someone who gets it—who sees the full picture without shrinking your experience down to a diagnosis.

I work with Women of Color who are done being dismissed, spiritualized, or told to “just breathe” through their pain. You’ve done the pushing through. The perfection. The emotional gymnastics.
Now you’re ready for something different.

This space is built for you.
Not the curated version of you that knows how to smile through it, but the one who wants more than just functioning. The one who’s craving peace that doesn’t come at the cost of her identity.

My approach is grounded, culturally affirming, and real. I hold space for your stories, your silence, your complexity—without judgment. And when you’re ready, we’ll get into the work of processing what’s heavy, unlearning what’s no longer yours, and reclaiming the parts of you that were never broken—just buried.

You don’t need to be fixed. You need to be fully supported.


Therapy doesn’t have to feel clinical or performative.
Here, it feels like home.

If what you’ve read already feels like a breath of fresh air—just wait.
There’s more to this space than therapy.
There’s a reason it feels like the right fit.

What Clients Say

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What Clients Say •

  • Former Client

    "I didn’t realize how much I was carrying until I started working with you. Therapy helped me finally breathe again."

  • Former Client

    "Before therapy, I didn’t think I could change. Now, I know that healing is possible, and I’m living proof of it."

  • Former Client

    “You have made a whole difference in my life, and I’m forever grateful for everything you’ve taught me.” 

Heal & Lift
Woman practicing yoga outdoors with closed eyes, wearing a black sports bra and smartwatch.

Survival Isn’t the Goal—Freedom Is.

Let’s Get to That Version of You.

The one who wakes up without the heaviness.
The one who trusts her gut, owns her boundaries, and doesn’t apologize for needing more.

You’ve spent years silencing your voice, second-guessing your worth, and putting yourself last.

What if healing wasn’t about going back—but moving forward?
With clarity. With confidence. With you at the center.

Therapy can help you untangle what’s been holding you back and reconnect you to who you were always meant to be—not the version shaped by trauma, guilt, or survival.

You’re not too late. You’re right on time.

Let’s do this together.