Dr. Cristina Davis, Psy.D., MA, LMHCA
Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate
(206) 558-2238 | [email protected]
Where you are and how you feel right now is understandable, but you don’t have to stay in this place forever. I want to help you get to where you want to be. Working collaboratively together, focused solely on you, I will encourage you and push you to accomplish the goals you set for yourself. I offer counseling for children, teens, adult individuals, and couples facing a wide variety of issues. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, abandonment, grief, chemical dependency, or other concerns, it would be my honor to work with you to find lasting solutions with God’s help.
Federal Way – Tue & Thu
Kent – Wed & Fri
God’s love for you will never change, no matter what circumstances you may experience. As your counselor, I will seek to point you to the love of Christ, helping you see that He is able to equip you to overcome the challenges you face, with His sustaining power and grace. In our sessions, I will listen carefully to your story without judgment and sit with you in your pain. Together we will develop a treatment plan with measurable steps to help you achieve the outcomes you desire.
My Goal as a Christian Counselor
My goal as your counselor is for you to gain a self-confident approach to life utilizing the skills developed in therapy. It’s important to me that you make progress through our sessions together. My hope is that as you grow in counseling, you will learn and practice the therapeutic techniques outside of our sessions and become more confident in your own ability to overcome the life challenges you encounter.
What I Offer in Christian Counseling
I offer a safe, judgment-free space where you can freely share whatever concerns are on your mind and heart. In our first session, we’ll spend time getting to know one another, and I’ll ask you to share with me your reasons for seeking therapy. In follow-up sessions, we’ll implement treatment interventions, discuss homework assignments, and measure and review your progress.
My Approach to Christian Counseling
A distinctively Christian approach to counseling involves recognizing that while emotions can feel very real, they waver, and therefore, can be unreliable. I can give you the tools and help you develop the skills, but true and lasting comfort is found in knowing that God and His love for you is reliable, never changes, and is unwavering. My faith informs my practice by enabling me to meet each client exactly where they are in life, vulnerabilities and all, knowing that God can take those vulnerabilities and use them to make an individual strong.
Qualifications & Experience
I received a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Northwest University. I completed my clinical training at Monroe Correctional Complex, Western State Hospital, and Nebraska Mental Health Centers.
My Call to Christian Counseling
I want to use what God has blessed me with to meet you wherever you are in life and help you break free of whatever is keeping you chained. My call to Christian Counseling is recognizing that while I may have acquired a degree, I know there is a God whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. In reference to Him, there is very little, if any, difference between you and me. Ask, seek, knock . . . and you will find.
More About Me/On a Personal Note
I am married. I enjoy food, cooking, and hiking. My friends describe me as down-to-earth, energetic, and an “old soul”.
Areas of Expertise/Specialties
- Abandonment and Neglect
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Chemical Dependency
- Counseling for Children
- Counseling for Teens
- Couples Counseling
- Depression
- Family Counseling
- Grief and Loss
- Group Counseling
- Individual Counseling
- Marriage Counseling
- Online Counseling
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Trauma
Counseling for Children and Teens
Counseling children and teens is very rewarding. My approach to working with children and adolescents is structured, yet flexible to give them choices and as much control as possible. I have worked with youth with a variety of presenting concerns, including those with behavioral issues, ADHD, anxiety, trauma, and intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD).
Whenever possible, I work to integrate parent(s) or guardian(s) into therapy on a part-time basis. This is important so we can increase the responsiveness of the child or teen to the parent(s). In addition, caregivers can expect some homework as well so transitioning out of therapy will be smooth and skills developed in therapy will be maintained after therapy ends.
Family Counseling
My role as a Family Counselor is to amplify the voices in the family that may have gone unheard. In my experience, a family member is usually identified as the “presenting problem.” However, identifying patterns within the family will likely begin the process of understanding how the family system has sustained itself even in the face of hardship and troubles. During family counseling, I will help families change the dynamics and patterns which have kept the family stuck and realign their family system. When therapy comes to an end, families can anticipate experiencing more cohesion and closeness.
Grief
Grief can be a painful and lonely experience. Others may not understand, and it can be difficult to express with words. Navigating the waves of emotions and accepting the loss can be especially challenging. Differences in the type of loss can lead to a spectrum of emotions, such as a deep despair over who or what was lost, or a sense of relief which may leave the survivor feeling guilty. Whether you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one, a loss of a job, or a loss of something else, you aren’t alone.
Sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one can leave a heavy burden on those that remain. If the loss was traumatic, intense emotional reactions that persist for a longer duration are common. You may not have been ready to say goodbye, so reconciling the pain and finding peace can be a messy process. Reoccurring dreams or memories, intrusive thoughts, and blaming yourself or others can occur. While you may want relief from the pain, you may feel a strong desire to cling to all that you have left of the one you lost. Healing, at times, can stir up a feeling of guilt about potentially forgetting or abandoning the person that passed. This internal strife can keep a person stuck in the grief cycle for a prolonged period. Whether your loss was 10 days ago or 10 years ago, I will help you identify helpful coping skills, process through the grief, and assign homework to address areas in your life that may need extra attention to maintain your overall mental and physical health.
Marriage Counseling
Whether you are living like roommates or are on the brink of divorce, the marriage can be restored. Tending to other areas in life and neglecting your marriage will eventually lead to a period of drought, poverty, and starvation. As your marriage counselor, I will encourage you to limit the distractions, ask for help, discuss your options for preservation, prepare emotionally, and plan for what you want your marriage to look like in a year from now. Marital couples must do the work to reap the reward, but WOW! . . . The harvest is plentiful, and the reward is good. Marital counseling can completely change the trajectory of a family! Do not underestimate it, as the marriage is an important foundation to the family system. Let God be the foundation of your marriage, and anything is possible.
Abandonment, Neglect, and Trauma
Experiences of abandonment, neglect, or trauma may be carried by someone throughout their lifetime, particularly when these experiences occur during the formative years. Each of these experiences can shape your perception of yourself and others. It may be difficult to form and maintain lasting, meaningful relationships and you may feel especially sensitive to relationship disruption. These experiences do not define your identity but can often construct your core beliefs about who you are and manifest in your relationships. I will provide you with a judgment-free, shame-free space to process through the pain you have carried, identify and challenge thinking patterns that have contributed to negative beliefs about yourself, and help you establish healthy boundaries with yourself and others.
Availability (by office location):
- Federal Way – Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Kent – Wednesdays and Fridays
Fees: I offer a Risk-Free Initial Session for individuals, couples, and families looking to pursue counseling with me. Please note that there is a fee for the Risk-Free Initial Session as it is a clinical hour and reimbursable to most insurance companies, but if you choose not to reschedule and continue therapy after the initial session the entire fee for the session will be waived. For ongoing treatment the full fee per session is required at the time of service.
Insurance: As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate (LMHCA), some insurance companies will reimburse for a portion of my services (as an Out of Network Provider). Please consult with your insurance provider as to whether they specifically cover adolescents, individuals and couples.
Receipts/Statements: In the event you require a printed or digital receipt, I will provide receipts for personal use, insurance reimbursement, Flex Spending Accounts (FSA), and Health Savings Accounts (HSA).
Payment options: Cash, Check, or Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, & American Express). A fee of up to 4% per transaction will be added for credit card payments.
Focus Areas
Testimonials
My preteen daughter was having some issues dealing with her emotions etc so we decided to see Cristina Davis.
After the first session, my daughter immediately clicked with her and felt comfortable.
She literally told me after the session “ She was not what I expected, and I choose her.”As a parent, I felt a little shame wondering what I did wrong that lead us to the point of seeking professional help, but Cristina immediately put me at ease, never once felt judged in any way.
Weekly sessions became something my daughter was looking foward to. It says a lot about a person when children are drawn to a person. Even my toddler who I brought with me at the end of my daughters sessions started asking about Cristina!
We are forever grateful for all of Cristina’s help and will miss her.Rose Lee
Google Review
My preteen daughter came to see Cristina Davis. My daughter was nervous about meeting her and to my relief she immediately clicked with her during our initial appointment. Made this process a lot easier!
I as a parent never felt judged and felt comfort my daughter will get then help she needed.
During the course of her sessions, I can see positive changes. She has a way of making my daughter feel comfortable, & was looking foward to her sessions with her to connect. You can tell a lot about people when children are drawn to a particular person. Even my younger toddler daughter would ask for her!
We will always be forever grateful and will miss her now that we are finished.Rose Lee
Google Review
Christina was awesome! She really helped my partner and I improve our communication and relationship as a whole. Would highly recommend for couples.
Brandy Nicole
Google Review
Cristina is the best, very educated in her field and easy to work with!
Brooke Embree
Google Review
Cristina Davis was my counselor, she was attentive, professional, respectful and straight forward. I felt like she really get me and listened to what I had to say and that goes to show that she truly care for me individually. I would highly recommend her.
Daphne Mitchell
Google Review
As we went through our journey in life, we needed to take time out to review where our relationship with each other was at and the next chapters in these travels. We found Dr. Cristina Davis helped us focus again on the values that our marriage needed. The tools that were shared by Dr. Davis have been a great resource to us. If your relationship is at a point where additional assistance is needed, we highly recommend Dr. Davis to join your walk.
Ray Vefik
Google Review
We found that we were getting complacent in our marriage, and we felt that we needed support from other sources for our relationship to continue to move forward in a positive way. Dr. Cristina Davis gave us some very important tools to use that helped us get back on track with the values that our marriage was based on. We highly recommend Dr. Davis to help you on your journey.
Ray Vefik
Google Review
I had a great experience working with Cristina Davis. She made it easy to open up to and shared easy to implement strategies to use in my daily life. So grateful that I had the chance to have her as my therapist and definitely would recommend working with her!
Michelle
Google Review
As a Christian college-aged young woman, I really appreciated working with Dr. Cristina Davis. I received Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety and depression. I would highly recommend Dr. Davis as a therapist, particularly if you are willing to put in the effort to improve your mental health, but desire an extra push towards being proactive, especially advocating for your needs. She provides a safe space to talk through your problems, but helps you not to dwell on them. She is someone you can feel comfortable with right away and she makes conscious effort to show that she’s invested in your healing journey. She is also very receptive to feedback and if you would like her to change something about her approach, I would highly recommend speaking up. As she’d say, once you work through a challenge with someone, your relationship grows deeper. Overall, I’m very thankful for the opportunity to learn different approaches to dealing with mental health concerns and difficult situations/relationships from someone with a biblical and God-centered perspective.
Hannah Chung
Google Review
Cristina is such a passionate and caring professional. She not only takes time to invest in her clients but her coworkers alike. Cristina is resource driven and is constantly learning more to ensure the most relevant, ethical, and applicable approach to each and every client she sees.
Kristi Meints
Google Review
I have worked with Cristina in the past and it is evident that she is very passionate about her work. She is an amazing therapist who cares deeply for her clients. She works well with all individuals, but I think she really excels at working with couples and families. Highly recommend Cristina!.
Miranda Buresh
Google Review
I had an awesome experience with Cristina, she really takes time to listen to all those she works with patients and staff included. I always appreciate when I come across someone who brings in great energy when meeting them and she is surely that person. 5 stars was easy to give here
Thanny21
Google Review
It has been such a blessing to have Cristina in my journey of life. She is thoughtful, an intentional listener and her heart is to be the hands and feet of Our Lord. Thank you for all that do Cristina to encourage and inspire me to move in a healthy way towards Our Savior!!
Rebecca Roadman
Google Review
“My 15 yrs son suffering level of anxiety and sometimes panic attacks, when he came here and I am very happy to say that he is more calm and relaxed and managing life issues much better now, especially in school.
I highly recommend Ms. Davis, she great listeners with compassion and wisdom.
Thank you for showing myself & husband to listen and understand our son.”Diane pham
Google Review
There are very few people I meet that leave a big impression and Cristina is one of them. You can tell she puts her heart and soul in her work or even just in general if you need help she’ll be there to help in any way she can. I got to work with her and see how amazing she was with her patients and also an amazing team player to have. She really pays attention to whatever you have to tell her. Definitely a person I’ve been happy to come across
Thanny21
Google Review
Cristina was great to work with. She gave my family the tools needed to repair and move foward as a healthy family unit. Our family feels lighter, heard, and aware of what we need to do to make our family stronger. Cristina is professional, great with building excersises that when put into practice are effective
Debra
Google Review
Wow, meeting with Cristina was a pure act of God! I’m so blessed and thankful that, by the grace of God, He introduced me to her. Cristina’s thoughtful approach is helpful, timely and always reflects on the most important detail….Scripture! This is always a very comforting place to be
Rebecca Roadman
Google Review
Cristina Davis has such a powerful presence of joy and deep care of others. Her desire to help all around her and always pointing others to the Lord is admirable. Cristina is a fount of knowledge and love for others.
Kristi Meints
Google Review
Ms.Davis is truly one of a kind and I feel blessed to have know and worked with her. With her you are in the best hands.
Stephanie McCormick
Google Review
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Cristina in the past, and I really enjoyed getting to know her. She has a great personality and you can tell she really enjoys what she does! As a receptionist, I had many clients say how much they loved their time with her, and others who specifically requested her. While Cristina works well with all individuals, she seemed to do very well working with couples and families!
Miranda Buresh
Google Review
I definitely recommend Cristina. She is kind, receptive and wants the best for her patients. She made me feel comfortable. – Sara
Ben Pesicka
Google Review
I have had the pleasure of working with Ms. Davis in the past. From what I gathered during our time together is she is a hard worker and is not afraid to go that extra mile for the individuals in her care.
Stephanie McCormick
Google Review