Mission & values

Down-to-earth, focused on young professionals, and inclusive through and through, MEC is Charlotte’s go-to therapy practice for people craving deeper meaning in the modern world.

Diamond James and Lauren Barker in Uptown Charlotte

Welcome to Modern Era Counseling! We’re a team of dynamic therapists on a mission to advance Charlotte’s emotional wellness—one person and one conversation at a time.

Together, we’re motivated by a common vision: a Charlotte where everyone can feel secure in who they are and enjoy meaningful relationships with others.

There are plenty of counselors who work well on their own, but that’s not us. We’re clinicians who leverage community to operate at our fullest capacity. We’re a mix of introverts and extroverts, but we all share a deeply held desire – a need, really – to be in close-knit community with other growth-minded clinicians. Supporting and pushing one another toward becoming better therapists and all-around human beings further enhances the meaning and satisfaction we derive from this work. As a team, we care deeply about one another, and not just as fellow therapists, but as human beings, too.

In case you can’t tell, we don’t take this work lightly. We’re counselors who take pride in pushing our limits and being our most effective selves. We believe that growth, both personal and professional, is a never-ending process, which is why we dedicate ourselves to deepening our craft every chance we get.

But don’t get us wrong;
we’re more than just therapy nerds.

We’re also DIYers, runners, fiction junkies, amateur musicians, gamers, coffee aficionados, and outdoor enthusiasts. Put simply, we’re licensed therapists who favor authenticity & being down-to-earth, savvy clinicians who are supremely laid back and uniquely human. It’s not an easy combination to find in our profession, but it speaks to who we are – and what makes us different. As our profession continues to embrace reductive labels and formulaic therapies, we take a different tack: facilitating human growth and wellness through good-quality conversation and connecting with our clients as the unique human beings that they are. Put simply, we normalize and humanize therapy. While we each approach our craft differently, we all work from a common humanistic foundation, meaning we don’t take a pathological view of human existence. In other words, we don’t see people as “sick” or “diseased,” or reduce them to some generic list of symptoms. Instead, we strive to normalize the emotional struggles and other challenges that come with being human in the modern world.

Therapists Charlotte NC

Unique among other Charlotte counseling practices, MEC caters to the high-achieving young professional.

Life and work should be worthwhile and have meaning

We work with Charlotte’s banker, teacher, attorney, doctor, student, artist, contractor, techy, barista, consultant, engineer and general “I want more out of life”-er. As young professionals ourselves, we understand many of the unique challenges our clients are facing because we’re right there with them. We share their unwillingness to settle for the crap that every generation before them has, their refusal to stay in a meaningless job just to collect a paycheck, and their reluctance to settle for relationships that aren’t fulfilling. Above all else, we share their conviction that life and work should be worthwhile and have meaning.

Our clients usually turn to us when they’re wrestling with the developmental conflicts of adolescence and young adulthood.

(These are the questions from stages 5 and 6 in Erikson’s theory.) Where am I and where am I going? Is it okay to be me? Am I enough? How do I deal with loneliness and isolation? and What keeps me from feeling loved and wanted? As counselors, we help our people confront these questions and use them as catalysts for feeling more assured of themselves in the world, be it connecting with a stronger sense of self, feeling truly “enough,” or establishing loving and lasting relationships with others. This is the worthwhile and meaningful work that lights us up!

As counselors who champion human diversity and advocate for marginalized populations, we have a special interest in supporting our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ neighbors, as well as those at the margins of ethnicity, gender identity, religion/spirituality, and ability in our community. We don’t view ourselves as experts on diversity, mostly because we’re far too interested in discovering our client’s individual stories and experiences firsthand.

As a practice, we strive to overdeliver for our clients. “Wowing” our people isn’t about landing a stellar Google review; instead, we pull out all the stops for our clients to honor them for being the strong, courageous, and awe-inspiring badasses that they are.

Modern Era Counseling provides LGBTQ therapy in Charlotte, NC.

Interested in joining our team?

Head on over to our careers page now to learn more about our current openings. 

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