Lindsay Haygood

Lindsay is an LCSW with diverse experience working with clients who hold intersectional identities and unique backgrounds. Lindsay has experience working with all life stages, however, specializes in working with preteens to adults. As a clinical social worker, Lindsay prioritizes therapeutic alignment through client driven goals, empowerment, transparency, and open, compassionate communication. Lindsay is a warm, caring, inquisitive person who takes pride in living her values and embracing others with understanding, meeting them where they are. Having both lived personal experience and clinical experience working with BIPOC populations, Lindsay takes pride in destigmatizing the therapy environment, actively holding space and encouraging cultural expression in our work together. She has been able to partner with clients seeking tools and perspective in maneuvering challenging life stressors, such as depression, low or no sense of self, anger, anxiety, grief, harmful or problematic core values and beliefs, substance use, and other major life transitions. Lindsay believes in arming her clients with the most effective tools to better navigate life’s dynamic progression. Developing skills, ranging from emotion regulation, building distress tolerance and resilience, learning healthy boundaries, healthy and effective communication methods, self-care, and compassionate awareness and curiosity in mindfulness practices, can allow space for clients to grow and evolve into their best self. Lindsay is an Alaskan transplant from Athens, Georgia, home of the Georgia Bulldawgs. Lindsay has past experience living in the pacific northwest, however, Alaska stole her heart. In her spare time, Lindsay enjoys spending time in nature, listening to music, laughing, making art, crafting, road tripping, reading, walking her puppy, Pepper Ann, and spending time with her people. Education and training Lindsay graduated from her Master degree program in social work from the University of Georgia in 2015. Lindsay achieved “Double Dawg” status, once she completed her master’s, having previously received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the same institution (GO DAWGS!). Upon graduation, Lindsay received additional training in Dbt, Cbt, decolonizing therapy with BIPOC populations, gender identity and expression, racialized trauma, historical trauma, suicide prevention and assessment, harm reduction, sexual identity and orientation, solution focused therapy, intergenerational trauma, substance use disorder, polyvagal theory, mindfulness, and trauma processing. Lindsay is in the process of earning certification in brainspotting. In accordance with Alaska State Law, Lindsay is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW #194006) Experience Since graduation in 2015, Lindsay has worked in a variety of clinical environments. Lindsay began her practice as a crisis assessor in an emergency room, later opting to experience more direct practice in bush Alaska working at an Indian Health Services Community health agency. Lindsay worked with the Alaskan Native population and deep, vibrant Inupiaq culture as an itinerant therapist, flying out to small villages providing therapy to the community, as well as an assessor for the local court ordered evaluations, family crisis center, and medical social worker. Lindsay returned to Georgia and began working in a medication assisted treatment facility with substance use clients. In addition to having experience working with diverse multicultural populations, Lindsay gained experience working with children 0-5 and families developing healthy and nurturing home environments to better poise educational opportunities in state funded pre-kindergarten facilities in Georgia. The year 2020 caused a shift for global citizens and presented a unique opportunity for Lindsay to explore Macro-social work. Lindsay began working with community members who were inclined to serve their neighbors in the time of a pandemic; developing local mutual aid efforts to provide underserved, vulnerable, and elder populations with food, companionship, access to protective health equipment and other community resources. Simultaneously, Lindsay was inspired to develop her individual virtual private practice in Georgia, to aid in addressing, what we would later learn to be, the mental health crisis. Lindsay was led to return to Alaska, continuing work in community mental health where she has fallen in love with the peninsula and locals. Lindsay is ecstatic to join the Kenai Peninsula Mental Health team and continue to serve the community. Therapeutic orientation Lindsay engages a holistic approach to working with clients, to help explore all the facets of the lived experience, stressors, and resilience. Lindsay strongly believes that the client is the expert and reinforces this belief by creating a safe, collaborative, empowered environment in the work she does with clients. Lindsay believes in developing a meaningful rapport and mutual respect of the therapeutic process and environment. Lindsay approaches the therapeutic relationship as an empowered, intentionally cultivated space where compassionate curiosity, exploration, enlightenment, and healing can occur on your time. Lindsay prioritizes self-determination, safety, and empowerment of the expert in the space, the client; She considers the opportunity to explore your lived experiences as an honor and responsibility not to be taken lightly. Lindsay utilizes a myriad of client tailored modalities to reach the therapeutic goals established in care, seeking to enlist concepts and therapeutic approaches in treatment as they become relevant to the client. A fan of socratic learning, Lindsay maintains an open therapeutic environment to prioritize open dialogue of treatment methodology and efficacy. Lindsay is able to offer warmth, non-judgemental empathy and encourage growth. Therapy sessions with Lindsay draw from Solution Focused perspectives, motivational interviewing, Cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, working with somatic experiencing, self-compassion, Dialectical behavioral concepts and more. Lindsay has been known to exercise her creativity in sessions, and will employ writing prompts, exploration exercises, in-session mindfulness, art and play therapy.