Dedicated Therapists Who Understand
We are a collective of highly trained, licensed counselors helping adaptable individuals and couples relate well through counseling
Meet the Attached Counseling Collective Team
About Us
Victoria Hicks LPC, LMFT, CPCS
"I have been to over 20 different countries because of my love for travel. Through this experience, I have developed a love for people across all cultures. I know how to meet clients where they are and to really understand them in their context which has been pivotal in my work."
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What Victoria is Passionate about
Victoria’s heart has always broken over divorce as she has seen the lasting effects of broken marriages on others. She desires to help couples and individuals with the skills and healing needed for successful relationships. She believes that maybe her work can help reduce the rate of divorce and help people finally find meaning through relationships.
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How Victoria helps
First and foremost Victoria focuses on collaborating with her client. We will spend time figuring out where you get stuck and help you get unstuck, whether that is as a couple or individual. Working together to get to the root of the problem is a big part of our work so we can find the true healing that you are seeking. With couples, the hope is that you get unstuck in your unhealthy pattern of relating and find the way back to each other. Victoria draws from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), trauma-informed perspectives, attachment theory and is EMDR certified.
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Areas of focus
Relationship Issues, Couples & Premarital, Trauma & EMDR, Anxiety, Spirituality
Jacob Hicks LPC, CSAT
"I've been a drummer since my teens, so I've learned that being in tune with yourself and being genuine in your experience is essential to finding the flow and rhythm to your life.."
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What Jacob is Passionate about
Jacob helps couples and individuals to experience healing from negative experiences and unhelpful ways of thinking. He believes that people must feel heard and understood before they can create the lasting change that they are looking for. That change begins in the therapy room by creating moments of successful vulnerability for both individuals and couples. You don’t have to struggle alone.
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How Jacob helps
Jacob helps couples develop insight into the negative cycle that occurs between you and your partner. Armed with a new awareness, you’ll learn more helpful ways of communicating with your partner that allow both of you to feel heard and cared for. Jacob's extensive training & experience with those struggling with sex addiction guides him in helping clients understand the cycle of addiction that they experience from a more holistic perspective, including relapse prevention strategies, understanding the impact of trauma on addiction, and learning about more effective strategies for creating connection with others.
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Areas of focus
Richard Leseganich Master's Level Clinician
"No masks, no polish. Bring your unfiltered self — we’ll face what’s real, cut through the noise, and do the work that helps life finally feel like yours."
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What Richard is Passionate about
Richard is fueled by a zeal for diversity, cultural immersion, theology, social justice, and authenticity. What drives Richard is helping people strip away the masks, confront the hard truths, and lean into the values that make them who they really are.
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How Richard helps
Richard brings a down-to-earth approach to the counseling room. Sessions are casual but laser-focused, mixing evidence-based strategies with honest conversation. He’ll challenge you when you need it, laugh with you, lightness is needed, and stay grounded in approaches that are proven to work.
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Areas of focus
Trauma Recovery, LGBTQIA+ Affirming Therapy & Identity Exploration, Adolescents and Young Adults, Grief, and Men's Issues
Christa Hammaker LAPC
"My studies and experiences in life have brought me to helping refugees resettling in the states, to studying French abroad, and living in a remote area of Indonesia. These experiences have provided me with an interest and openness to various perspectives and ways of life, an understanding of disorientation, and motivation to be trained in trauma processing. "
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What Christa is Passionate about
Christa desires to help clients navigate their identity and life after traumatic events. By recovering hope as you pursue meaningful transformation after life-altering events, honoring what has been lost and its continued role in who you are, a cross-cultural move, recovering connection with others by establishing necessary boundaries and/or through opening up to greater vulnerability and trust in relationships, and finding a place to process past spiritual hurt and healing.
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How Christa helps
Christa helps clients process their emotions by being a grounded presence that can provide settledness as they grieve or process traumatic events. Christa is a witness to the life events shared so that clients are no longer alone in their grief or pain. She assists them in identifying for themselves what they have and are going through. If a client is interested in using EMDR for this process, she is trained to integrate that in sessions.
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Areas of focus
Grief & Loss, Helping Professionals, Relational Stress, Spirituality, Cultural Adjustment & Identity.
Joshua Simpson LAPC
"I know firsthand what it’s like to grow up in a broken home where love and connection were strained, where wounds were left unhealed. But I’ve also come to know the power of restoration—the healing that could have been possible had there been space for it. ."
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What Josh is Passionate about
Healing isn’t just an individual journey—it’s a communal one. Josh believes that restoration happens in connection, that healing extends beyond the therapy room into families, faith communities, and cultural spaces. Whether you’re navigating personal trauma, family estrangement, or a crisis of faith, his goal is to help you find meaning, connection, and restoration in a way that honors your lived experience.
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How Josh helps
Josh's work is deeply rooted in understanding and repairing the wounds that stem from broken attachments—whether in families, faith communities, or personal identity. He specializes in working with individuals who have experienced spiritual abuse and religious trauma, helping them untangle the pain of betrayal, manipulation, or toxic theology while rediscovering their own sense of meaning and faith. Using a blend of Logotherapy and Attachment Theory, he guides clients in reconnecting with their intrinsic values and repairing relationships with themselves and others.
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Areas of focus
Teens, Women & Men's Issues, Trauma & Stress, Spirituality
Melissa Portell Berrios LAPC
"Being bilingual enriches my ability to connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds, allowing me to offer compassionate and relatable support. My greatest joy is helping people build resilience and embrace healing."
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What Melissa is Passionate about
Melissa wants to help clients navigate grief and loss due to her own experience with loss. Having navigated grief, including the loss of a beloved pet after 14 years, I understand the deep emotional impact loss can have. This experience drives me to help others who are grieving, and I’ve even created a project in honor of my pet, which fuels my passion for supporting those going through pet loss. Additionally, I launched the journal prompt series My Unique Grief Journey, offering self-paced tools for expressing and processing grief.
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How Melissa helps
Melissa takes a holistic approach to healing by integrating the body, mind, and emotions. She believes true healing happens by addressing the whole person. She offers alternative methods such as writing, movement, breathwork, or sound to help release and transform difficult emotions. Together, she’ll help uncover the root of struggles and explore what works best for clients, using practical tools to help manage life’s challenges. Nurturing both mind and body, empowers clients with ways to bring balance and peace back.
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Areas of focus
Grief movement, Life transitions, Grief & loss, Anxiety, Dating & Singleness.
Gabby Lerner Administrative & Marketing Intern
“As a third-year psychology major at the University of Florida with a strong interest in health,
trauma-informed care, and recovery. Through my internship, I'm eager to support the systems that help individuals access mental health services in a welcoming, organized environment."
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What Gabby is Passionate about
Gabby is passionate about promoting health and well-being, advocating for survivors of sexual trauma, and supporting individuals with disordered eating and nutrition concerns. She is especially interested in how research shapes effective, inclusive care and enjoys exploring how evidence-based practices can improve client outcomes and underlying psychological processes.
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How Gabby helps
At The Attached Counseling Collective, Gabby assists with client intake and administrative coordination. She supports research and outreach efforts, manages directories of community resources, and runs the practice’s social media accounts to promote mental health education and engagement. She also contributes monthly blog content focused on wellness. Her work helps ensure that both clients and clinicians feel supported, informed, and connected.
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Fun Fact
Gabby is on her school's olympic weight lifting team. She spend a month in Tel Aviv, Israel researching adolescent irritability behaviors.