Rae Linkous, LPC

Rae Linkous is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) practicing in Virginia with ten years of experience supporting children, teens, and adults through complex life challenges. She draws on a foundation in biology, chemistry, and psychology from Bluefield College and completed a M.Ed. in Human Services and Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lindsey Wilson College in 2015, shaping a clinical perspective that blends brain-focused education with practical therapeutic tools.

Her clinical background includes an internship at a domestic violence shelter for women and children and therapeutic day counseling in school settings. Rae spent seven years in residential treatment and one year in outpatient care before moving into her current outpatient role, where she provides therapy to both adults and young people. Throughout her career she has worked extensively with trauma-related concerns including sexual, physical, and emotional neglect, as well as complications such as self-harm, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, anger and aggression, defiance, family conflict, and sexualized behaviors.

Rae is known for a down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach that balances direct, compassionate challenge with education about how trauma affects the brain. She believes clients are the primary drivers of change and focuses on helping people reclaim a sense of agency regardless of past experiences. Her specialty areas include family issues, trauma and abuse, anger, self-esteem, depression, LGBT concerns, grief, bipolar disorder, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue, with additional focus on abandonment, adoption and foster care, attachment issues, blended family challenges, body image, caregiver stress, codependency, communication problems, DMDD, divorce and separation, domestic violence, forgiveness, gender dysphoria, and guilt and shame.

Rae integrates multiple therapeutic modalities rather than adhering to a one-size-fits-all model. Her methods include Client-Centered approaches, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution-Focused Therapy, Somatic Therapy, Trauma-Focused Therapy including TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Motivational Interviewing, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This flexibility allows her to tailor treatment to the needs of each person and to emphasize practical skills, trauma processing, and resilience building.