MEET EMILEA GROSS
Warmth. Humor. Honesty. Flexibility. Meaningful Change.
At A Glance
SPECIALTIES
Eating Disorders · Anxiety · Depression · OCD · ADHD & Executive Functioning · Grief/Loss · Trauma · Life Transitions · Maternal Mental Health · Parent Coaching · Clinical Supervision
WHO I WORK WITH
Children · Teens · College Aged & Young Adults · Adults · Athletes · Performers
APPROACH
Warm · Grounded · Collaborative · Direct · Adaptable · Practical
TREATMENT MODALITIES
EMDR · Brainspotting · CBT · Motivational Interviewing · DBT · ACT · FBT · Polyvagal-Informed · Parts Work · Intuitive Eating · Responsive Feeding
LOCATIONS
In-person in Raleigh, NC · Telehealth in NC
A Little About Me
I'm Emilea Gross, a therapist and clinical supervisor at Three Birds Counseling. I'm glad you're here.
You've spent a long time trying to be the person you think you're supposed to be.
Doing everything right. Meeting everyone's expectations. Trying not to disappoint people. Holding yourself to standards you'd never expect anyone else to meet.
Now, you're exhausted from second-guessing yourself—your decisions, your relationships, your body, your needs, or whether you're doing enough.
Change can be really hard. Especially when we're fighting so hard against where we are that we don't leave much room to explore where we could go.
You can accept yourself as you are
and still make room for change.
One of the things I most want for you is to develop greater trust in yourself.
Your voice. Your body. Your judgment. Your needs and wants. Your ability to make decisions and navigate difficult things.
I've worked with children, teens, adults, and families across a wide range of clinical settings and levels of care, including with people facing significant and complex mental health challenges.
I bring warmth, humor, curiosity, and a lot of energy to my work. I'm also direct, engaged, and willing to challenge you when I believe it might help.
I want therapy to be a place where you can think out loud, try on different perspectives, ask difficult questions, and explore possibilities without the pressures and expectations of the outside world.
Because ultimately, this is your life.
My goal isn't to tell you what your story should be. It's to help you trust yourself as you decide what comes next.
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO WORK WITH ME
I believe good therapy starts with a strong relationship.
I want you to feel comfortable being yourself with me. You can laugh, cry, swear, disagree, ask questions, or tell me something you're not particularly proud of.
I'm down-to-earth, energetic, and use a lot of humor. I take my work seriously, but that doesn't mean we have to take ourselves seriously every moment.
I also believe that feeling genuinely supported and being meaningfully challenged can—and often should—happen in the same relationship.
A PLACE TO THINK OUT LOUD
I want therapy to be a place where you can explore your experiences without the pressure to have everything figured out. We can turn something over, consider different perspectives, question assumptions, and get curious about what else might be true.
I often ask clients, “What story are you telling yourself about this? Where did that story come from? What happens if we follow it to the end? And does it have to end that way?
Sometimes a different question or perspective can open up possibilities we hadn't considered before.
COMPASSION DOESN'T MEAN I'LL ALWAYS AGREE WITH YOU
I believe you're doing the best you can with what you have.
And I believe there's always more to discover, more to practice, and more room to grow.
Both things can be true.
I'll meet you with compassion, honesty, and respect. I'll listen carefully, offer perspective, and challenge you when I believe it might help.
You won't always agree with me, and that's okay. I want you to feel comfortable telling me when something doesn't fit or when I've missed the mark.
I'm not afraid of difficult conversations, especially when they can help us move toward meaningful change.
You deserve both compassion for where you are and support in moving toward where you want to be.
A DIRECTION, NOT A RIGID ROADMAP
I bring clinical knowledge, experience, and ideas to our work. You bring expertise about your own life.
Together, we'll identify what matters to you and develop a thoughtful, flexible plan for moving in that direction.
I'm also interested in using more intentional progress check-ins and outcome measures—not to reduce your experience to a number, but to help us recognize what's changing, celebrate progress, and adjust when something isn't working.
I want you to see how far you've come, even when progress feels difficult to recognize.
And I want you to feel increasingly confident in your ability to navigate life's challenges.
Ultimately, my goal is to help you trust yourself—not become someone who needs me to tell you what to do.
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS TO ME
I can trace one of my earliest ideas about becoming a therapist to watching Rugrats as a kid.
Seriously.
There was a therapist on the show, and I remember thinking that helping children and families seemed like a pretty cool thing to do. I was right. I love this work.
My understanding of the work has changed quite a bit since then. But the interest in people, relationships, and helping families navigate difficult things has stayed with me.
Over the years, I've worked with people during some incredibly challenging periods of their lives.
I've seen how painful it can be to feel trapped by shame, fear, trauma, an eating disorder, or patterns that seem impossible to change.
And I've seen how powerful even the smallest shifts can be.
One of my favorite moments in therapy is when I ask a question or offer a reflection and someone has to stop for a moment.
Not because they don't know what to say, but because something has landed differently.
Something they hadn't considered before.
Something worth sitting with.
I love those moments.
I also love when clients come in excited to tell me about something they tried, something that went well, or simply something happening in their lives that they want to share.
Those moments of connection matter to me, too.
My perspective is also shaped by my own experiences, including recovery from an eating disorder and navigating pregnancy losses.
I know personally that healing can be painful, uncomfortable, and far more complicated than simply deciding you want things to be different.
I share that not because my experiences are the same as yours, but because they have deepened my appreciation for the courage it takes to do this work.
I've come to believe more and more in the importance of expansion.
Expanding the ways we understand ourselves.
Expanding our capacity to experience difficult emotions without being controlled by them.
Expanding the stories we tell about what's possible.
Expanding our ability to recognize what we need, trust our judgment, and make choices that reflect who we are.
I don't think healing means becoming an entirely different person.
Sometimes it means rediscovering parts of ourselves we've lost touch with.
Sometimes it means recognizing that a story we've been telling ourselves doesn't have to be the only one available.
And sometimes it means finding the courage to write the next part differently.
You may not have chosen every chapter of your story. But you get to participate in what happens next.
That's why I love this work.
OUTSIDE THE THERAPY ROOM
Outside of work, a lot of my life revolves around family, creativity, movement, music, and finding opportunities to laugh.
I'm a girl mom, a lover of musical theater, and someone who is generally pretty happy when there's music or dancing involved.
These days, that includes taking adult tap and ballet classes, which I absolutely love. I also enjoy going to Burn Boot Camp and finding ways to feel strong and connected to my body.
I love traveling, design, and creative projects. In another life, I think I might have been a florist. I also happen to be really good at making macarons—which is a very particular and occasionally humbling skill.
I'm a co-host of the podcast A Lot More Nuanced, where I get to explore ideas, conversations, and perspectives that interest me.
I've also learned, through my own recovery, how important it is to stay connected to the activities, relationships, and experiences that help me feel like myself.
For me, that's movement, creativity, music, connection, travel, and plenty of laughter—including at myself.
I think that's important for the people I work with, too.
There's more to life than managing the things that are difficult.
There's also room to discover what makes us feel alive.
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EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, & SPECIALIZED TRAINING
My approach to therapy draws on more than 12 years of experience across mental health, education, clinical practice, teaching, and supervision.
My professional background includes extensive clinical work across all levels of eating disorder treatment, from inpatient hospitalization, residential, intensive outpatient, to outpatient care, trauma and behavioral health care, college counseling, undergraduate and graduate teaching, group therapy, and clinical supervision.
Working with people across the lifespan and in settings ranging from outpatient therapy to intensive treatment programs has strengthened my clinical judgment, flexibility, and appreciation for the importance of individualized care.
EDUCATION
PhD in Counseling & Counselor Education, UNC-G
MS in College Counseling & Student Development in Higher Education, UNC-G
BA in Psychology, James Madison University
LICENSURE & CERTIFICATIONS
Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor & Qualified Supervisor (NC #12197)
Licensed Professional Counselor (SC # 10879)
Licensed Professional CLinical Counselor (KY # 306843)
Certified Eating Disorders Specialist & Consultant (#6560)
EXPERIENCE
12+ years in mental health & education, including clinical practice, program development, undergraduate and graduate teaching, & clinical supervision.
ADVANCED CLINICAL TRAINING
Advanced training in EMDR, Brainspotting, Safe & Sound Protocol, Polyvagal Theory; DBT, CBT, ACT, ExRP, MI, Family Based Treatment, ADHD/EF Coaching, Intuitive Eating, Weight-Inclusive Care, Emotion-Focused Therapy and Emotion-Focused Family Therapy; Internal Family Systems; Circle of Security; Maternal mental health; measurement-based care; Clinical Supervision
A CLOSER LOOK AT MY EXPERIENCE
A broad background across settings, populations, and professional roles.
CLINICAL SETTINGS
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Inpatient/Residential ED treatment
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PHP/IOP ED treatment (in-person and virtual)
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College counseling center
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Private practice
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PHP/IOP Behavioral Health and Substance Use treatment
TEACHING & CLINICAL SUPERVISION
Courses Taught
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Counseling Theories
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Research Methods (master's and doctoral)
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Application of Measurement & Clinical Appraisal Techniques
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Diagnosis & Treatment Planning in Counseling
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Advanced Practicum (Master's and Doctoral)
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Clinical Internship (Master's)
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Mental Health Issues for Genetic Counselors
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Treating Eating and Feeding Disorders in Counseling
PEOPLE & CONCERNS
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Eating disorders, body image concerns, compulsive exercise, and intersecting medical complications (POTS, Celiac, Gastroparesis, Hashimotos, Diabetes, PCOS)
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ADHD, OCD, & executive functioning difficulties
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Infertility, pregnancy loss, and infant loss
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Perinatal and postpartum mental health concerns and transitions
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Depression, anxiety, suicidality, self-injury, personality disorders, substance abuse, and other mental health concerns
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Complex/developmental, chronic, and acute trauma including sexual, emotional, physical, medical, and childhood
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Grief, bereavement, terminal illness, chronic pain & disability, & other experiences of loss
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Relationships, family dynamics, and life transitions
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Career exploration, decision-making, and professional development
