Meet Our Team
Compassionate Care from Experienced, Whole-Hearted Clinicians
Our team of highly trained, deeply compassionate therapists brings decades of experience in trauma-informed, somatic, and relational healing work. Each clinician offers a unique blend of expertise, presence, and warmth – creating a safe space for individuals, couples, and families to explore their challenges and rediscover their inner resilience.
Kim Jeffs, MA, LCMHCS, SEP
Founder/CEO
Kim Jeffs is a nationally recognized somatic therapist who is known for her founding of the first trauma clinic in the State of NC. As a mental health entrepreneur, Kim has owned several companies over the last 2 decades having helped tens of thousands of people over the course of her career in the field of mental health including individual psychotherapy, international women’s retreats, corporate resiliency training and helping the helpers whenever she can!
Kim has trained with world renown trauma experts including Dr. Bessel van Der Kalk, Dr. Peter Levine & Dr. Stephen Porges and has a specialty for working with anxiety, trauma and high stress physiology. She is an expert in the mind/body connection and nervous system regulation through the lens of the somatic approach. Having studied at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, part of the training was practicing Aikido for 3 years to learn how to sit with people and manage energy.
Kim is LGBTQIQA+ affirming and she values embodiment through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. She fosters a community where all clients can feel welcome. Kim is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner & Training Assistant with the Trauma Healing Institute in Boulder, CO.
Kim offers clinical supervision for limited licensed therapists new to the field of mental health and those seeking a deeper understanding of how to work with nervous system regulation to heal trauma.
Kim has a way of fostering a quick connection with her clients so that transformation can take place. She works with individuals, couples and families. When Kim isn’t working she is enjoying playing tennis, swimming at the lake and spending time with her family and friends. Telehealth only at this time.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth only.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals, Couples & Families.
Michelle Chachkes, MS, LCSW
Michelle Chachkes, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and seasoned mental health therapist with over 30 years of experience supporting individuals and families through life’s most challenging moments.
She holds both a Master’s and post-Master’s degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City. Michelle’s extensive clinical background includes working in community mental health with individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness, guiding families through the emotional complexities of hospice care, and training parents in Conscious Discipline to foster healthier parent-child relationships through trauma-informed, brain-based strategies.
In her private practice, Michelle draws from a blended therapeutic approach rooted in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Experiencing (SE), mindfulness, and movement. Her integrative style helps clients reconnect with themselves, process unresolved trauma, and cultivate greater emotional regulation, presence, and resilience.
Michelle believes that therapy is about building a trusting, safe, and compassionate environment where true growth can happen and new skills can emerge. She is known for her calm, grounded presence and her ability to create space for deep healing, reflection, and transformation.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth and in person in North Raleigh.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals & Couples
Aura LaBarre, MA, LCMHC
Aura is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) who offers eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), integrated with somatic awareness and parts-work.
Aura’s experience includes counseling individuals who are processing recent and generational trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, chronic health concerns, identity journeys, those seeking new ways of addressing cyclical relationship problems, and other manifestations of human struggles. Her compassionate counseling approach walks the path as a student of anti-racist, LGBTQIA+ affirming, culturally inclusive, body, age, and diverse ability honoring approaches.
Aura received her master’s degree from North Carolina Central University and continues training in somatic integration and processing as an EMDR practitioner with EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) approved consultants. She also weaves solution-focused therapeutic strategies and restorative practices that maintain a Person-Centered environment into the collaborative healing process. As a trainee of The Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists (APSATS), she offers a multidimensional partner trauma model for those working through betrayal trauma.
With a background in ecology, Aura views healing within our larger systems - social, cultural, and environmental. Her somatic, body-in-mind therapeutic approach is grounded in the belief that trauma-informed care must account for the full complexity of human experience, honoring both the individual and the interconnected world in which we live. When not working, Aura finds solace in the tangle of her garden, walking in the woods with friends and family, and planning the next adventure.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth and in person in Durham.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals 18+
Meet Our Team
Compassionate Care from Experienced, Whole-Hearted Clinicians
Our team of highly trained, deeply compassionate therapists brings decades of experience in trauma-informed, somatic, and relational healing work. Each clinician offers a unique blend of expertise, presence, and warmth – creating a safe space for individuals, couples, and families to explore their challenges and rediscover their inner resilience.
Kim Jeffs, MA, LCMHCS, SEP
Founder/CEO
Kim Jeffs is a nationally recognized somatic therapist who is known for her founding of the first trauma clinic in the State of NC. As a mental health entrepreneur, Kim has owned several companies over the last 2 decades having helped tens of thousands of people over the course of her career in the field of mental health including individual psychotherapy, international women’s retreats, corporate resiliency training and helping the helpers whenever she can!
Kim has trained with world renown trauma experts including Dr. Bessel van Der Kalk, Dr. Peter Levine & Dr. Stephen Porges and has a specialty for working with anxiety, trauma and high stress physiology. She is an expert in the mind/body connection and nervous system regulation through the lens of the somatic approach. Having studied at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, part of the training was practicing Aikido for 3 years to learn how to sit with people and manage energy.
Kim is LGBTQIQA+ affirming and she values embodiment through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. She fosters a community where all clients can feel welcome. Kim is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner & Training Assistant with the Trauma Healing Institute in Boulder, CO.
Kim offers clinical supervision for limited licensed therapists new to the field of mental health and those seeking a deeper understanding of how to work with nervous system regulation to heal trauma.
Kim has a way of fostering a quick connection with her clients so that transformation can take place. She works with individuals, couples and families. When Kim isn’t working she is enjoying playing tennis, swimming at the lake and spending time with her family and friends. Telehealth only at this time.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth only.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals, Couples & Families.
Michelle Chachkes, MS, LCSW
Michelle Chachkes, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and seasoned mental health therapist with over 30 years of experience supporting individuals and families through life’s most challenging moments.
She holds both a Master’s and post-Master’s degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City. Michelle’s extensive clinical background includes working in community mental health with individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness, guiding families through the emotional complexities of hospice care, and training parents in Conscious Discipline to foster healthier parent-child relationships through trauma-informed, brain-based strategies.
In her private practice, Michelle draws from a blended therapeutic approach rooted in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Experiencing (SE), mindfulness, and movement. Her integrative style helps clients reconnect with themselves, process unresolved trauma, and cultivate greater emotional regulation, presence, and resilience.
Michelle believes that therapy is about building a trusting, safe, and compassionate environment where true growth can happen and new skills can emerge. She is known for her calm, grounded presence and her ability to create space for deep healing, reflection, and transformation.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth and in person in North Raleigh.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals & Couples
Aura LaBarre, MA, LCMHC
Aura is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) who offers eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), integrated with somatic awareness and parts-work.
Aura’s experience includes counseling individuals who are processing recent and generational trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, chronic health concerns, identity journeys, those seeking new ways of addressing cyclical relationship problems, and other manifestations of human struggles. Her compassionate counseling approach walks the path as a student of anti-racist, LGBTQIA+ affirming, culturally inclusive, body, age, and diverse ability honoring approaches.
Aura received her master’s degree from North Carolina Central University and continues training in somatic integration and processing as an EMDR practitioner with EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) approved consultants. She also weaves solution-focused therapeutic strategies and restorative practices that maintain a Person-Centered environment into the collaborative healing process. As a trainee of The Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists (APSATS), she offers a multidimensional partner trauma model for those working through betrayal trauma.
With a background in ecology, Aura views healing within our larger systems - social, cultural, and environmental. Her somatic, body-in-mind therapeutic approach is grounded in the belief that trauma-informed care must account for the full complexity of human experience, honoring both the individual and the interconnected world in which we live. When not working, Aura finds solace in the tangle of her garden, walking in the woods with friends and family, and planning the next adventure.
SERVICE LOCATION:
Serving clients via telehealth and in person in Durham.
POPULATIONS SERVED:
Adult Individuals 18+