Book a therapist or psychiatrist in Murfreesboro, TN covered by Cigna

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.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I'm committed to providing a safe and nonjudgmental environment for exploring pathways to psychological and emotional healing. Specializing in Dialectical and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, I believe everyone is worthy of love and happiness. I encourage people to see themselves through that same lens.

I love working with people and helping them "grow" through the things of life that they "go" through. A quote that I love to share with clients and live by personally is to remember not to focus on your purpose but to live your life purposely. As a military social worker my background is specific to first responders, but most importantly individuals that are learning their new "normal" after traumatic life events that have unexpectedly shaped them.

I have experience helping middle school students, teens, and 20s with friendships, conflict, anger, loss, life transitions, positive sense of self, self acceptance, anxiety, and panic attacks.

I have personally experienced and manage many of the situations listed above. Reaching out to a new person may be really difficult, especially a bald man with a mustache :), so kudos to you on taking steps to get help. I have worked as school counselor eight years as professional counselor for two. You're welcome to reach out for a free 15-minute call.

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 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

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.