Over the past 10 years in practice I have seen a consistent theme of underlying pain stemming from a lack of self-love. Loving yourself is what provides resilience when you make mistakes or get hurt in relationships. You are not alone if you are critical and mean to yourself or feel ashamed of who you are. Through that lens, everything looks bleak—not even successes, love and closeness with others can be fully enjoyed. Shame prevents full connection and the ability to be open and free. It can also lead to self-destructive, addictive, or numbing behaviors. When you don’t love yourself, you may even unintentionally choose partners or friends who don’t value you either and reinforce your skewed self-image. Your negative view of yourself is not your fault. It means you didn’t get what you needed to feel valued somewhere along the way. Those wounds that lead to not loving yourself can be healed with the right care. I enjoy joining clients on a rescue mission for their true selves and helping them discover and own their inner beauty and worth. It is truly possible to love yourself and have a nurturing relationship with yourself, letting go of the burden of shame and self-hatred. You will find self-love changes the quality of every aspect of your life.
Charlotte Howard, PhD
- Manage Medications: Provides therapy and collaborates closely with our psychiatry team for medication management, available through internal referral if needed.
People are naturally resilient with the right support. Therapy facilitates the healing process by helping you deeply understand yourself, with compassion, so your presenting concerns can be effectively addressed. My approach varies to fit the style and presenting issues of each client. Typically, I take a holistic approach combining in-depth traditional talk therapy with more recent, empirically-validated and present-focused approaches. I sometimes act as a life coach, helping clients change behaviors and discern choices that lead toward the lives they envision. My predominant focus is guiding deeper exploration that results in real inner transformation, personal fulfillment, and learning to love yourself.
I specialize in anxiety, self-esteem, group therapy, parenting, and helping clients understand their life purpose, meaning, and inner sustenance. My background in movement and body awareness provides the foundation for walking you through the latest researched interventions for stress, including mindfulness. Group therapy powerfully helps in understanding yourself in relationships and healing relational dynamics.
Over 10 years in practice I have seen a consistent theme of underlying pain stemming from a lack of self-love. Loving yourself is what provides resilience when you make mistakes or get hurt in relationships. I enjoy joining clients on a rescue mission for their true selves and discovering their inner beauty and worth.
Credentials
Education
Certifications and Memberships
- One of the few Austin psychologists who is a Certified Group Psychotherapist.
- Recipient of the Presidential Fellowship at the University of Iowa awarded each year to only a handful of the thousands of incoming graduate students
- Led over 1800 psychotherapy groups
- Past presenter at the American Psychological Association, as well as the American Group Psychotherapy Association
- 8 research publications in national & international professional psychology journals
- Creator of YourselfTruly.com online program to help women love themselves
- Author of self-help book for couples, Awaken to Love
- Special training in Relationship Issues, Anxiety & Panic Disorders, Existential Concerns, Parenting, & Group
- Additional areas of clinical experience: Depression, Bipolar, OCD, Eating Disorders, Personality Disorders, IBS, parenting, sexual concerns, Sleep Disorders, gender and sexual identity issues, life/career planning & motivation, chronic headaches, loss & trauma, and more.
Publications In
Awaken To Love
I wrote this book to help you in your relationships and use your relationship as a way to grow spiritually and to heal yourself and your partner. Awaken to Love combines the wisdom from spiritual and psychological approaches to transform and enrich the love between partners. It is for spiritual people, of any religion or spiritual path, who are ready to heal or deepen a committed relationship.
“Awaken to Love engages the heart, mind, & soul of the reader. Dr. Howard has given us a unique, brilliantly-written spiritual & psychological guide to long-lasting, deeply-felt, heart to heart relationships.”
Positions
I attended Middlebury College in Vermont and was one of two people granted permission to create my own major, which I called “Therapy as a Synthesis of Mind, Body, Spirit, & Sense of Place.” This major combined modern dance, environmental studies, literature, psychology, and religion, providing a foundation for my holistic and multidimensional therapy approach. I received a full fellowship to graduate school in Counseling Psychology, only awarded to a handful of incoming graduate students at the University of Iowa. While receiving my doctorate I taught movement improvisation and Authentic Movement, a therapeutic movement form, in the dance department. I also taught Developmental Psychology and saw clients for therapy in several schools and Universities, and one Women’s Resource & Action Center.
My internship was at the University of Texas Counseling & Mental Health Center working with college and graduate students and taking referrals from the physicians at the Health Center to address physical health issues that are tied to mental health, such as eating disorders, headaches, tension, panic attacks, digestive problems (such as irritable bowel syndrome), sleep disorders, and chronic pain. I also led a technique-based group for reducing social anxiety and stress. In addition to my Ph.D., I also received 5 years of training in holistic healing at the Jaffe Institute for Spiritual & Medical Healing. This training provides the basis for the existential work I do, as well as allowing me to easily incorporate clients’ spiritual lives into their healing process when they request it.
Specialties and Expertise
Top Specialities
Self Esteem, Relationship Issues, Anxiety
Expertise
- Academic Issues
- Aging
- Anxiety
- Attachment Trauma or Insecurity
- Career Counseling / Professional Growth
- Childhood Abuse or Neglect
- Codependency
- Conflict with Friends
- Depression
- Divorce / Breakup
- Executive / Business Coaching
- Existential Issues
- Fear of Rejection
- Infertility / Miscarriages
- Infidelity / Cheating
- Lack of Emotional Awareness
- Life Coaching
- Life Transitions
- Loss or Grief
- Mood Swings
- Not Happy or Satisfied with life
- Panic Attacks
- Perfectionism
- Personal Growth
- Postpartum Depression or Anxiety
- Procrastination
- Religious Trauma
- Self-Esteem / Negative Self-Talk
- Shame
- Shyness / High Sensitivity
- Social Anxiety
- Social Isolation / Loneliness
- Social Skills Training
- Spiritual Growth
- Stress / Burnout
- Stress-Related Illness
- Women's Issues
Treatment Approach
Types of Therapy
- Attachment-based
- Christian Counseling
- Coaching
- Coherence Therapy
- Compassion Focused
- Dance/Movement Therapy
- Depth Therapy
- Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential
- Faith-Based Counseling
- Humanistic
- Integrative
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Interpersonal
- Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB)
- Mindfulness-Based Interventions
- Object Relations
- Person-Centered (Rogerian)
- Process Oriented Psychology ('Process Work')
- Psychoanalytic
- Psychodynamic
- Relational Therapy
- Somatic
- Strength-Based
- Systems Approach
Locations
Client Focus
- Age Groups Served: Adults
- Participant Types: Individuals, Couples, Group
- Language Spoken: English