About Erin

Hi! I’m Erin Tillson Jeffries

Pronouns: she/her

I’m passionate about empowering anxious people-pleasers to feel calm, compassionate, and confident in their true selves. 

Specifically, I love helping folks who don’t quite fit into the American South’s boxes of white, hetero, conservative Christian.

I’m LGBTQ+ affirming, multiculturally experienced and committed to cultural humility, and support people across the spectrum of faith, spirituality, and or lack thereof. I also have a special interest in working with other therapists. 

How my passion developed

Growing up in a conservative evangelical context with military-turned-missionary parents, there were a lot of spoken and unspoken expectations of who I should be, around gender roles, religion, career paths, patriotism, and even personality. I often felt like there was something wrong with me that I needed to keep hidden away. 

I worked really hard to fit in and be good, and while this was exhausting, it worked for a while. Until it didn’t. 

In grad school, I had a spiritual breakdown and began a journey of deconstruction that at times left me worried I would never belong and never feel at home. But when the home you grew up in is destroyed, you have no other choice but to find or build something new. 

I still don’t fit neatly into many boxes, and probably never will. It’s more complicated, and I’m discovering and enjoying the gift of belonging within myself.

This is how I help others. 

I don’t expect (or even want) you to end up just like me, but instead I’ll help you be more you and integrate all the parts of you. 

While I have specialized training in relationships, I believe you are your own best expert and my goal is to come alongside you as a guide to help you connect to your own inner wisdom, your values, your dreams and goals. 

Over and over, I find myself in awe as the people I work with move from people-pleasing (a survival strategy needed when love and acceptance are conditional) to authentically loving themselves and others.

From believing “I don’t matter” to “my desires are worthwhile”.

From hiding your desires to asking (kindly, and solidly) for what you want. 

You can help others, and even bring joy to others, without sacrificing the essence of who you are. 

Sometimes there’s a true benefit to wearing a social mask 

and

everyone needs a place where you can take off your mask, be seen and known for who you really are, and be accepted just as you are.