Olivia Warfield

GRADUATE-LEVEL COUNSELING Intern

As a counselor, Olivia works from two basic premises: Difficulty in life is inevitable, and life is fundamentally relational. Our growth and flourishing are inherently interconnected with our experiences of change, grief, and loss. It follows from these premises that each of us requires support, encouragement, connection, acceptance, and belonging to be well in this world.

The therapeutic relationship holds the potential to both nurture these core needs and become a place where new goals, understandings, intentions, and hope can arise or be reignited. Olivia sees the opportunity to walk alongside you as you explore your emotions, needs, and desires as a serious privilege, which cannot be taken for granted. As one who has sought help, Olivia understands how difficult it can be to take the first step. Together, we can work toward living life with more hope and less alienation.

Olivia believes deeply in the importance of treating each person as one-of-a-kind, shaped by wholly unique causes, conditions, and experiences. Her trauma-informed therapeutic approach integrates existential, family systems, person-centered, dialectical behavioral, and acceptance and commitment theories best suited to the need and responsiveness of the client. She would be honored to meet you in the counseling room.

Olivia loves to travel and has visited 21 countries, although she always looks forward to returning home to Memphis. She enjoys reading works on philosophy, psychology, counseling theory, and spirituality. To lighten the mood, she listens to comedy and is always finding a way to laugh. She can also be found cooking (especially with herbs from the garden), exercising, spending time outdoors, and enjoying time with family, friends, and her cats.

Education

Olivia has a Master of Arts in Communication with an emphasis on rhetoric and media studies from the University of Memphis. She completed a thesis project near to her heart that focused on the work and present-day significance of Mr. Rogers. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Business from Rhodes College.

She is currently working toward the completion of her Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of Memphis.