Anna Murphy, LMHC

Anna Murphy is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) based in Iowa with nine years of professional experience across diverse clinical environments. She has provided care in psychiatric hospitals, schools, community mental health centers, and private agencies, working with people ranging in age from three years old to geriatric populations. Her background includes supporting individuals facing persistent or chronic mental illness, life transitions, trauma, mood and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, substance use concerns, involvement with child welfare systems, codependency, grief and loss, and challenges with emotion regulation.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa, where she studied Psychology and Studio Arts and completed a minor in Sociology in 2012. She earned a Master of Science in Art Therapy and Counseling from the College of New Rochelle in 2015. Drawing on formal training in art therapy as well as traditional talk therapies, she integrates expressive modalities with evidence-informed approaches when appropriate.

Her therapeutic stance is warm, interactive, and client-centered. She views individuals as experts in their own lives and aims to empower and support people as they build strategies and coping skills tailored to their unique circumstances. Clinically, she draws from a range of approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Mindfulness Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused Therapy, and trauma-focused methods. When clients are open to it, she also incorporates expressive therapy techniques to enrich the therapeutic process.

Anna works with a wide spectrum of concerns - from stress, anxiety, and depression to trauma and grief, relationship and family issues, addiction, mood disorders including bipolar, ADHD, and challenges such as caregiver stress, body image, and intimacy-related issues. Her practice emphasizes practical skills, trauma-informed care, and collaborative goal-setting to help individuals navigate change and improve emotional wellbeing.