Finding Safety & Growth with Kaylee Yates, MA, LMFT

Meet Kaylee Yates—a therapist whose empathy meets expertise, offering a healing space where both struggle and joy are honored. As Kaylee warmly puts it, “if you are going to do surgery in therapy, make sure to dip the scalpel in the anesthetic of love.” That grounding philosophy—creating a sanctuary of safety before confronting pain—is woven through everything she does.

A Person-Centered

Foundation

At the core of Kaylee’s work is person-centered therapy: a space where your unique story matters, and healing is guided together, not prescribed. She believes that everyone carries their own journey—she listens, learns, and walks alongside.

Expertise in Depression & Anxiety

Kaylee supports individuals, couples, and families in navigating depression and anxiety, helping clients rediscover clarity and resilience. Whether you're sitting across from her in person (hopefully with a cup of coffee in hand!) or joining via telehealth (where her cats might make surprise appearances), the connection is always warm and steady.

Healing Attachment and Relationship Wounds

While not always named outright, Kaylee’s specialties—couples, premarital, family, and young adults—hint at her deep understanding of attachment dynamics and relationship healing. Whether it's strengthening bonds or unpacking betrayal or insecurity, her relational focus supports restoring trust and connection.

Walking Through Trauma & Betrayal

Kaylee offers a compassionate presence for those grappling with trauma, grief, or betrayal. Though she doesn't emphasize specific trauma modalities, her overall approach—grounded in safety, narrative, and empathy—lends itself powerfully to processing deep wounds and restoring belonging.

Untangling People-Pleasing & Self-Destructive Patterns

Many who enter therapy find themselves trapped in self-sabotaging or people-pleasing habits. Kaylee meets where you are—honoring the pain behind the pattern, inviting curiosity without judgment, and helping you claim boundaries, assert needs, and nurture self-compassion.

Why Kaylee’s Approach Truly Matters

1. Safety First: A space where vulnerability is held, not judged

2. Your Story Centered: Therapy tailored to your history, not a one-size-fits-all script

3. Holistic Support: Whether through grief, trauma, relationships, or stress—a person-centered view always applies

4. Warm & Accessible: In-person (with coffee!), telehealth (with cat cameos!)—human connection is never compromised

5. Deep Relational Insight: Skilled at navigating attachment challenges, betrayal, and restoration of trust

In Her Own Words

Kaylee’s commitment shines through when she says:

“Therapy is not always easy… I may not be able to promise that the road to healing is easy, but I can promise to walk through this valley with you.”

That promise—of presence, partnership, and compassion—is at the heart of what makes her approach so profoundly supportive.

Ready to Begin?

If you're seeking healing from anxiety, depression, trauma, attachment wounds, betrayal, or the burdens of pleasing others—Kaylee Yates offers a therapy space where your story is seen, your heart is held, and your growth is guided—with love.

Interested in booking a session or exploring whether she’s the right fit? Reach out via our contact form to learn more about availability, telehealth or in-person options, and how to take the first step forward.

Can You Fix Your Family?

The short answer is no. You cannot fix your family.

I have noticed a significant reoccurring pattern in several of my client’s stories these past few weeks and thought it might be helpful to share my thoughts on this with others. 

There are some amazing families out there who are loving, securely attached, have healthy boundaries, and fulfill individual emotional needs in balanced ways.  They handle big feelings and give grace for the human imperfections that are in even the best of us.  They address conflicts and repair hurts in relationships.  Yet, many of the adult clients who end up in my office do not come from such a family.  Often, a big part of their recovery is identifying patterns they learned from their family of origin, such as attachment styles, communication, and handling conflict.

I love this quote from Brené Brown, Rising Strong, about an exercise that she does with people:

“Folks write down the name of someone who fills them with frustration, disappointment, and/or resentment, and then I propose that their person is doing the best he or she can. The responses have been wide-ranging...One woman said, 'If this was true and my mother was doing the best she can, I would be grief-stricken. I'd rather be angry than sad, so it's easier to believe she's letting me down on purpose than grieve the fact that my mother is never going to be who I need her to be.'"

The bad news is that you cannot heal the dysfunction in the family you grew up in.  If that was hard to read, read it again.  It is not your role to save your parents/caregivers now, nor should it ever have been your job growing up.  Let that responsibility go. It is keeping you stuck, sick, and sad.  Maybe they will change and maybe they won’t. It is not up to you and it never was.

There is a very real grief process that comes along with the acceptance of that reality.  All of us have expectations and dreams about what we hope life looks like, and this includes our family relationships. To lead healthy and wholehearted lives, we must make peace with the very real limits of others. 

The good news is that you can change your own life. 

• You can grow. 

• You can parent differently and stop those generational patterns. 

• You can accept yourself as worthy of love and belonging.

• You can freely give empathy because of the struggles you endured. 

• You are not doomed to repeat the past. 

• You can learn new ways to communicate. 

• You can set boundaries. 

• You can take the good parts of your family and limit the parts that are harmful. 

• You can make a new family. 

You can cultivate authentic relationships based on love, emotional/physical safety, deep connection, grace, compassion, courage, joy, and showing up for each other.  Not sure where to start? Give our office a call at 309-713-1485.