Ground Well Counseling is a practice devoted to facilitating every person’s healing and agency. Though most sessions are focused at an individual level, social justice, healing and environmental wellbeing are essential components of the practice.
About
“Is society healthy, that an individual should return to it? Has not society itself helped to make the individual unhealthy? Of course, the unhealthy must be made healthy, that goes without saying; but why should the individual adjust himself to an unhealthy society?
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Who, what, how…
I work with individual adults, groups, and families on issues of adjustment, trauma recovery, and emotional, relational, and communication skills. I believe deeply in both providing a safe container for reflection and processing as well as sharing and teaching skills that allow clients to better help themselves. I am committed to providing multiculturally-supportive and socially-just services to all clients, and I am always trying to deepen my skills in my areas of competence and increase my competence as a counselor. In particular, I try to work toward an inclusive, intersectional, decolonialist, anti-racist, LGBTQIA2S+-supportive, neurodiversity-supportive, disability-supportive, consensual non-monogamy-supportive and otherwise identity-affirming counseling practice.
From a clinical point of view, I have focused on helping people with diagnoses like PTSD, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and ADHD. I use a client-centered approach, incorporating polyvagal theory and experiential counseling to form my framework for understanding presenting issues and formulating treatment plans. I use the modalities of talk therapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, and activity- and somatic-based experiential counseling.
My “office” setting is a garden. I also have training and experience in using the above counseling modalities via telehealth, and telehealth appointments are available in the event of prohibitive weather or other extenuating circumstances, for example, a child home sick from school. Read more about some of the steps I take to protect privacy and confidentiality in an outdoor setting.
About me: Ailish Kress, LCPC-C (she/her)
I love the outdoors, food, music, and pondering the meaning of life. I have experience in the fields of research science, organic farming, food production, sports coaching, and alternative medicine (see below for more details). I am a neurodivergent, queer, cis, White woman. Cilantro tastes like soap to me, and one of my hobbies is collecting houseplants.
I graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI, in 2008 with a B. Sc. in Geological Sciences and in 2010 with an M. Sc. in Geological Sciences. I graduated from Prescott College in Prescott, AZ, in 2023 with an M. Sc. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a Graduate Certificate in Adventure-based Counseling (ABC). I am currently conditionally licensed as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor - Conditional (LCPC-C), issued 05/2024, expiring 05/2026.
Specific counseling trainings:
Prescott College - ABC Experiential Telehealth Intensive -Spring 2023
Prescott College - ABC Backpacking Intensive - August 2022
Prescott College - ABC Clinical First Responder Intensive - February 2021
Additional trainings:
Wilderness First Responder Training through Wilderness Medical Associates - WFR Certification through 11/26 - November 2023
The Shamanic Journey - Exploring Spirit Worlds with the Thirteenth Moon Center - November 2022
Horticultural Therapy Institute - Fundamentals of Horticultural Therapy - October 2019
Shamanic Journeying with the Spirits of Nature with Sandra Ingerman - April 2019
The Pluto School - Foundational Course in Evolutionary Astrology - Certification - March 2019
Atma Buti Sound and Vibrational School - Certified Practitioner, Himalayan Sound Healing - February 2018
Birthwise Midwifery School - Birth Doula Workshop (DONA) - April 2017
Services »
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“Office” Location —
At Peary’s Garden
18 Sadie Ln,
Bowdoinham, ME 04008
Directions: From 295, take exit 37 (138/Main St) and turn east toward Bowdoinham. Not quite a quarter mile to the left you will see the East of Eden Farmstand. Take a left a the farmstand and continue on Sadie Ln for another 100-200 feet. To park, pull off to either side of the driveway where there is space, but please leave the turnaround area at the end of the driveway free. The Ground Well hoophouse is set back away from the driveway outside the fenced area of the garden.
