Bipolar disorder therapists & psychiatrists in Cookeville, TN

Hi, I'm Dr. Deborah DeFrieze, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 15 years of experience helping people work through anxiety, stress, trauma, grief, depression, and life's hardest transitions. If anxiety or overwhelm has been running the show lately, I'm here to help you take the reins back — with a warm, honest, and practical approach.

My path to this work has been a rich one. Alongside my social work career, I spent 33 years in public education — as a teacher in both regular and special education, an assistant principal, a principal, and an assistant professor — and I served as a missionary in Africa for 18 months. Those experiences taught me to meet people where they are, across every walk of life and stage of change. I hold a Master of Social Work from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a doctorate in education from the University of Georgia, and I'm also a Licensed Massage Therapist, which deepens my appreciation for the mind-body connection in healing.

I draw on evidence-based approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), EMDR, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, tailoring our work to what will help you most.

If you’re carrying trauma, anxiety, or depression, you’ve found a warm and steady place to start. I’m a seasoned Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and mindfulness has been a deeply important part of my own life and my work for nearly 30 years. Over the years, I’ve completed intensive meditation training in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the United States, experiences that have profoundly shaped how I understand healing, presence, and the connection between mind and body. I’d be honored to bring all of that to you.

I’m a therapist based in Memphis who works with high-achieving women navigating anxiety, burnout, identity transitions, and complex relationship dynamics. Many of my clients are successful on the outside and exhausted on the inside. They are often the responsible one, the strong one, the reliable one — and quietly overwhelmed.

My work is grounded in Internal Family Systems (IFS), an evidence-based model that helps clients understand and heal the different “parts” of themselves — the driven part, the critical part, the anxious part, the part that feels unseen. I am Level 1 trained in IFS and integrate attachment-informed and trauma-responsive care into my practice.

I came to therapy from the other side of it. Years ago, a workplace injury took away the career I'd built and — for a while — my ability to cope with much of anything. Rebuilding taught me what actually works: not inspiration, not willpower, but practical tools and someone willing to be honest with you about what's going on. I've been an LCSW since 2019, trained at the University of Tennessee, and I work exclusively with adults across Tennessee through telehealth. My clients deal with anxiety, ADHD, depression, grief, anger, trauma, and the particular weight of living with chronic pain alongside mental health struggles. I'm not a blank-slate therapist — I'm direct, I'll tell you what I'm observing, and I treat your goals as the actual point of the work

Hello! My name is Bea Nguyen and I am a board-certified Psychiatric Nurse Practitionerwho believes in providing compassionate mental health and substance use treatment for adults ages 18 and older. I have years of experience providing care in a variety of psychiatric settings such as in-patient, outpatient, community, private practice, and residential care. I work with individuals experiencing a wide range of psychiatric (long-term depression, anxiety, schizophrenia) and co-occurring substance use challenges. I approach each person with respect, empathy, and genuine understanding of their needs.

Lisa Kruger PMHNP-BC. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner -Board Certified. Attended Lincoln Memorial University for Nursing School and King College for Masters of Science in Nursing to obtain my Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Degree in Knoxville Tennessee. I have experience and passion for working with adolescent and teen patients. I have worked with the youth population in multiple capacities for many years. I also have experience treating all age populations for symptoms related to mild to severe depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant disorder, anxiety, agoraphobia and divorce trauma recovery.

I am an individual counseling with over 12 years of experience at the Post-Graduate level. I specialize in working with adults and have experience with many clinical settings, including In-patient care, community mental health and private practice. I also provide Clinical Supervision for counselors that are on track to become licensed in the state of Tennessee.