Carrie Niles, MA, LPCC
I hold a deep belief that meaningful change begins when clients feel genuinely seen and accepted. When inner experience is met with steady, thoughtful attention and empathy, there is often enough safety to begin looking more closely at feelings, memories, and patterns that have developed over time. I start from the premise that emotions are meaningful and understandable in the context of experiences, and we can become curious together about how strategies and beliefs have been shaped over time. From there, it becomes more possible to move from long‑standing survival strategies, often formed early in life and carried on quietly for years, toward new ways of knowing and relating to oneself that are less organized by fear and more grounded in self‑compassion.
I work primarily with individual adults and families. My clinical interests include PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, and major life transitions, with a particular focus on developmental and complex trauma, attachment injury, and dissociation (including DID). I pay close attention to how these experiences shape the nervous system, a person’s sense of self, and their capacity for connection with themselves and with others. As feelings and experiences are explored with curiosity and care, the nervous system can begin to settle, relationship patterns can become clearer, and inner life can feel more solid and coherent.
My approach is collaborative, grounded, and deeply trauma informed. I meet clients where they are ready to begin and attend to symptom relief while holding a broader view of overall wellness. My work is most strongly shaped by psychodynamic, attachment‑base, and systemic perspectives, which help make sense of how earlier relationships live on inside us, together with somatic and mindfulness‑oriented practices that connect beliefs and emotions with what the body holds. I am also trained in the Anchored Relational model (formerly AIR Network) and EMDR, and draw on these and other modalities when they are important to supporting therapeutic needs, preferences, and pace.
I welcome clients from the queer community and hold closely the ways identity, safety, and belonging intersect with emotional life. I am currently meeting with clients in my Roseville office and via telehealth throughout Minnesota. It is an honor to do this work, and my hope is that therapy offers a place where clients feel deeply understood, less alone with what they carry, and become increasingly able to move through the world with clarity, connection, and a steadier sense of self-trust.
