Meet the Therapists at Coastal Counseling Center

Brooks Gale

Brooks is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a background in inpatient behavioral health, outpatient substance abuse, and outpatient therapy. Brooks has experience treating PTSD, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and other related diagnoses.

Brooks works with adults over the age of 18. He provides Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. He works to provide a relationship based upon trust, respect, and authenticity with clients where they can feel heard.

Accepting Patients 16 and Up

Charlotta Crews

Charlotta is a Resident in Counseling, with experience working within various environments to include; the public-school system, non-profit organizations, and inpatient mental health care. Charlotta graduated with her master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from William & Mary, and utilizes both her academic and life experience to inform her as she works towards licensure.

As a provider, Charlotta is familiar with military life’s challenges and stressors, being a former military child herself. She is also a dual citizen of Finland and the United States, and her extensive global travels continue to inform her commitment to furthering multicultural understanding in the counseling profession. It has been said that Charlotta is incredibly empathic in her approach, and sees counseling as a collaborative process between therapist and client. Charlotta is knowledgeable in working with trauma, depression, anxiety, parenting/family problems, and life-adjustment issues. She provides services to children, adolescents, and adults, and offers individual, and couples therapy.

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” – Pema Chödrön

Dorothy Goulart

Dr. Dorothy Goulart has more than 30 years of clinical experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She has been treating children, adolescents, adults and their families in Virginia since 2012. As a Certified Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior clinician, Dr. Dorothy specializes in trauma, anxiety, depression, divorce, stress, grief and loss. She also integrates faith and spirituality in her treatment approach when appropriate.

Dr. Dorothy is a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, certified in AutPlay, a specific play therapy intervention for children and adolescents diagnosed with autism. She is trained in a variety of evidenced-based interventions that include Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy and Solution/Brief Focused Therapy. She earned a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) from Walden University in 2018.

Ebony Canady

A graduate of University of California Riverside and Norfolk State University, Ebony is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 10 years of experience treating all age groups in various settings and modalities like EMDR. She is trained and certified to work with grief, intellectual disabilities, and critical incident stress debriefing. She is also comfortable with substance abuse counseling, acute mental illness and crisis intervention as well as family counseling, trauma recovery, and perinatal mental healthcare. Ebony is enthusiastic and enjoys working with a diverse group of clients. She provides outpatient care to children as young as 3 years old but works well with all ages on an individual basis or for couples’ therapy. You will find a therapist willing to accept you for who you are but willing to push you maximize your potential.

Jenelle Drake

“We will never get back the life we waste trying to be normal.” – Atticus

One of my first supervisors told me, 90% of therapy is the relationship. This has stuck with me through my years of practice and shaped the way I think about therapy. Not everything can be handled with a script when we all come from different backgrounds and develop varying perspectives. I work to get to know my clients, validating their struggles and experiencing life with them, while providing skills and sprinkling laughter and sarcasm along the way. I show my real, enthusiastic, down-to-earth, quirky self, which allows my clients to love and look forward to therapy, despite it being difficult and not always fun.

I have always been passionate about helping others; however, this passion strengthened through my time in the military from 2006-2011. This experience encouraged growth and self-confidence, leaving me with a strong interest to support and inspire teens, mentoring them to a better self-image and greater self-worth, something I greatly struggled with in my teen years. I graduated with a Master’s in Psychology in 2015 after working with homeless veterans with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. Very quickly, I realized that my heart still resided with helping children and adolescents. I started a position assisting severely-emotionally disturbed teens in a residential setting who were on probation or in foster care, as well as teens experiencing suicidal/homicidal ideations who were leaving mental health inpatient facilities. I have worked with teens since 2016 and love encouraging them to be the best version of their unique selves, because why would we want to be like everyone else?

John Copeland

Mr. Copeland provides psychotherapy to teens, adults and children. He is a Virginia Licensed Professional Counselor. His education includes a Bachelors of Science in Education and Psychology and a Masters of Education. With over 15 years of experience, John has worked with individuals, couples, and families in various mental health settings including, in-home extensive family therapy for challenged youth, community agency, and private practice. His treatment specialties include anxiety, depression, anger management, parenting, grief and loss, PTSD and couples counseling. John is also a specialist in treating co-occurring disorders where mental health issues are treated in conjunction with substance abuse issues. John is a certified Clinical Supervisor providing clinical supervision for licensure to Clinical Therapists. He is a practitioner of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. John is known for his wisdom, warmth and humor, qualities that make him highly regarded as an educator, therapist and supervisor.

Judy Griffin

Mrs. Griffin is very adept in the treatment of children, teenagers and adults. She provides marital, family and individual therapy for issues of divorce recovery, loss & grief, domestic violence, sexual abuse, ADHD, anxiety, depression and anger management problems.

Maddison Schiafo

Dr. Maddison Schiafo is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Sam Houston State University in 2020.  Dr. Schiafo has experience conducting psychological assessments and providing empirically supported treatment across multiple settings, including private practice, community clinics, inpatient hospitals, and probation departments.

Dr. Schiafo currently provides psychodiagnostic evaluations for an array of referral questions, including those relative intellectual functioning, ADHD, and other psychological disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, bipolar, PTSD, personality disorders, etc.). She accepts clients ages 10 and up. In her free time, Dr. Schiafo enjoys spending time with her four dogs and working in her vegetable garden.

Renee Skinner

Renee is a Licensed Professional Counselor with experience working within various environments to include, private practice, teen residential, Intensive In-home, community agency, and within the prison system. Her life experience and world travels have offered a unique understanding of multicultural issues and that there are many ways to do things the right way. It has been said that Renee is creative in her approach, warm, genuine, and relatable. She takes pride in helping you find the path to your own solutions. Renee is knowledgeable in working with trauma, abuse, depression, anxiety, parenting/family problems, and life-adjustment issues. She provides services to children, adolescents, and adults, offering individual, couples, and family therapy.

Robin Shelton

Mrs. Shelton has extensive experience providing services to military families. She provides treatment to adults, adolescents and to middle school age children. She specializes in depression, grief, sexual and physical abuse issues, as well as substance abuse addictions. She provides family and marital therapy.

Ronna Adler

Mrs. Adler has provided counseling services for over three decades. She counsels children over the age of eleven as well as adolescents, adults and geriatric clients. Mrs. Adler uses individual, marital/family therapy to enable individuals and couples to communicate more effectively. Mrs. Adler specializes in Behavioral Management Issues, Depression, Grief, Anger Management Skills, PTSD, Sexual Issues, Gay and Lesbian Relationships, Parenting Skills, Substance Abuse and areas affected by Attention Deficit Disorder. Mrs. Adler uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to address issues of anxiety and depression.

Samantha Zbur

I am a fully licensed clinical psychologist providing psychotherapy services to children, adolescents, and adults. Finding value in a variety of therapeutic approaches, I often blend evidence-based treatments such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and interpersonal therapy to address the treatment goals of patients. I also have experience in providing Motivational Interviewing, Behavior Modification, Trauma-Focused CBT, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Exposure Response Prevention for OCD, and psychological testing for ADHD and learning problems.

My areas of clinical expertise and interest include: anxiety, depression, OCD, behavioral problems, ADHD, trauma, grief/loss, adjustment issues related to life transitions (divorce, breakups, college and post-college experiences), codependency, intimate partner violence/narcissistic abuse, family and peer conflict, low self-esteem, and body image concerns.

I consider it an honor and privilege to be a part of each patient’s journey through life’s challenges and bear witness to the strength and resiliency of the human spirit. I look forward to the possibility of working with you!