Christine Sande, LCMHC, LCAS-A, is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist Associate, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and EMDR-trained therapist. She is the owner of First-Aid Counseling, PLLC, a North Carolina-based mental health practice providing telehealth services to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families.

Christine has worked in the mental health field since 2015, with experience ranging from direct clinical care to practice management and behavioral health operations. Her approach is trauma-informed, person-centered, and grounded in evidence-based practices, while recognizing that no two people, experiences, or healing journeys look exactly the same.

She believes conversations about mental health should feel human, relatable, and accessible, not buried beneath clinical terminology or presented as though healing follows a perfectly organized checklist. Her writing combines professional knowledge with authenticity, humor, personal reflection, and practical strategies for navigating real life.

Through her writing, Christine explores trauma and healing, relationships, boundaries, self-worth, emotional regulation, anxiety, attachment, personal growth, addiction and recovery, and the complicated patterns we develop while trying to survive, connect, grow, and figure ourselves out.

Her goal is not to tell people how they should feel or who they should become. Instead, she hopes to encourage curiosity, self-awareness, compassion, and a deeper understanding of the experiences that shape how we think, feel, connect, and respond.

A Little Therapist Disclaimer

I may be a therapist, but reading my blog does not make me your therapist.

The thoughts, stories, information, tools, humor, personal experiences, and occasional therapeutic reality checks I share here are intended for education, encouragement, and general informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for therapy, diagnosis, medical advice, or individualized mental health treatment.

You may also notice that I write like a real person. That is intentional.

I share personal experiences. I use humor, sometimes dark humor. I use sarcasm. I get frustrated. I may occasionally use colorful language. I talk about the messy, uncomfortable, ridiculous, and very human parts of life that do not always fit neatly into a clinical textbook.

None of that takes away from my clinical knowledge, expertise, or professionalism. It simply means I am human too.

Being a therapist does not mean I have mastered life. I experience emotions. I make mistakes. I get overwhelmed. I am still learning, growing, healing, and figuring things out along the way. And yes, sometimes I laugh at inappropriate times or find myself thinking, “What the actual fuck?”

I am a therapist, but I am also a work in progress. 😂

Mental health is deeply personal. What resonates with one person may not fit another, and a strategy that is helpful for someone else may not be appropriate for you. Take what resonates, leave what does not, and when you need support specific to your experiences, consider working with a qualified mental health professional who can get to know your story.

Professional does not have to mean emotionless. Expertise does not require perfection. And being a therapist certainly does not mean having everything figured out.

Sometimes healing is deep and uncomfortable. Sometimes it is messy. Sometimes you have to laugh your way through it.

All of it can be part of the process. ❤️