Meet Chelsea

My name is Chelsea DeKruyff, MA, LPC. I am a compassion-centered, neuroscience-informed psychotherapist in Austin, Texas. I specialize in working with PTSD and trauma-related disorders, ADHD, relationships, and identity issues. I work with both men and women, and with adults and teens, particularly teens with anxiety or LGBTQ+ teens.

Mindfulness practices and compassion are an integral component to my practice. I believe the relationship between the client and the therapist is central to healing. I don’t assign homework and tasks. I don’t write on a clipboard while you speak. I show up as authentically as you. There is no hiding behind the facade of a clinical, professional role, which is controversial, but I think that having a healthy, trusting, and genuine relationship with clients is more important for healing.

This is because the way we heal from trauma is to be present with our trauma and feel calm and seen with another person. When you are coming to therapy, you are usually in a state of anxiety or crisis, and it’s really easy to feel anxious, judged, or distrustful of someone who is just presenting a strictly professional persona. When people who are highly empathic pick up on that distance, they feel alone or misunderstood in that process. When a therapist approaches therapy being really relational, it’s very calming for the nervous systems of those people. For people who are really empathic (neurodivergent, childhood trauma leading to hypervigilance, etc.) they will notice and can easily pick up when someone is not being genuine or not actually connecting with them.

I have been in practice for over 17 years. I have a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling (Magna Cum Laude) from Texas State. From the University of Incarnate Word, I have a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature with a Minor in Spanish Language (Magna Cum Laude) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a Minor in International Relations (Magna Cum Laude). I served as the Co-Founder, Faculty Member, Vice President of Vet Craft, which used hands-on mindfulness techniques (like woodwork and carpentry) to help veterans with PTSD. I also served as the Co-Founder, Faculty Member, and Vice President of The International Centers for Health and Human Rights.

While I was with the International Center, I was part of the first and only team of psychotherapists to be invited by the Tibetan Government in exile to work with mental health givers concerning PTSD in those living stateless and in exile from Chinese Prison Camps. I also developed a unique method for interviewing torture victims for the purpose of performing psychiatric evaluations for those seeking asylum. What makes the method unique is that, when you talk to someone so briefly (maybe 3 hours total), there’s a danger of retraumatizing the person. The method I came up with not only avoids retraumatizing but the reports show that it actually healed. I used this method for years in asylum cases and taught it as a guest at the University of Texas School of Law.

Every case I took won asylum.

I am Texas born and raised, and currently call Austin home. I have two incredibly smart, talented kids and am a bit too obsessed with my three cats. My weekends are sometimes spent engineering amazing structures in my home for them to have adventures on. I myself have ADHD, so as far as other hobbies and interests, I have a million that have been started and abandoned! But I do often enjoy reading tarot, doing pilates, playing video games, and reading books alone with my kids that they’ve been assigned at school so we can dish on how much we love them or hate them. I am getting back into trail running, and enjoy cooking and coming up with dishes that are very gourmet but only use what I have in my kitchen already. I am also a practicing Buddhist, which has deeply informed my compassionate approach to my practice.

If you’d like to book a consultation, please click the button below.

To stay in touch, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @badass_compassion