Addiction therapists & psychiatrists in Johnson City, 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.

Do you feel taken advantage of and like no matter what you do, you can't win? Are you a victim of emotional, verbal or physical abuse? Do you love someone who is caught up in the pain of addiction or mental illness? Have you tried everything you can think of but have no idea how to help or what else to do? Are you afraid your partner, spouse, adult child or other loved one will end up in jail, or worse? I get it. Maybe you're just mad. Maybe you're tired of having to handle everything yourself. I get that too.

I believe reaching out for support is a meaningful first step toward creating positive change. As a warm, compassionate, and welcoming counselor, I strive to create a safe, nonjudgmental space where you can be your authentic self and feel empowered throughout the counseling process. My goal is to create a space where you feel heard, understood, and empowered to move forward.

Loving someone who struggles with addiction can quietly take over your whole life. You worry constantly, you smooth things over, you set a boundary and then talk yourself right out of it, and somewhere along the way you lose track of your own needs. If that's you, I understand it in a way that goes beyond training. Alongside my years as a counselor, I've spent more than two decades in the Al-Anon community, and I work with adults who are worn down from caring for, worrying about, or trying to fix someone they love. You don't have to keep carrying it alone.

I have a broad variety of therapeutic experience to include crisis intervention and trauma informed care. I received my master's degree in professional counseling from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA and have been practicing in the field for over 10yrs.

I am available to care for individuals who require non-standard and flexible appointment hours including evenings; and, with a focus on working adults/professionals, students, elderly, those with challenges due to their illness, and so forth. I am also open to taking on patients who need continuity of care after discharge from inpatient care. I am capable of providing on the spot medication management including deprescribing/tapers, addressing interactions, taking over from primary care provider for more advance regiment, etc ...

I'm a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) and Board Certified Hypnotherapist based in Madison, TN, with 16 years in practice. I hold a Master's in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University and am a certified hypnotherapist through the National Guild of Hypnotists. I'm also an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, so I train and supervise other clinicians in addition to seeing clients myself.

I work with adults and families around addiction, trauma and PTSD, and impulse control disorders, along with anxiety, low self-esteem, mood disorders, OCD, relationship issues, and compulsive or disruptive patterns. Hypnotherapy and Internal Family Sytems are my favorite modalities.

I offer both in-person sessions (at Watershed Wellness Cooperative in Madison) and telehealth, with daytime, evening, and weekend availability.