Jennie Dickson-Mills
MSW, LCSW, SEP, E-RYT 200
I’m a psychotherapist and yoga and meditation teacher living and working in the Triangle area of North Carolina. I work with adults in individual therapy to address a wide range of concerns. I welcome people from all sexual orientations and gender identities—including transgender and nonbinary people—as well as all racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
My approach to therapy centers the foundational importance of the mind-body connection, the healing power of secure human relationships, and a culturally informed, anti-oppression lens. I believe that by cultivating a compassionate relationship with your body, yourself, and others, it’s possible not only to alleviate psychological distress, but to truly flourish.
I bring a warm, attuned, and collaborative presence to our work together. Therapy is a dynamic process, and I believe that deepening our understanding of our inner worlds can open the door to meaningful and lasting change. Often, this also involves exploring the broader cultural and relational contexts that shape our lives—understanding how external forces can contribute to patterns of thought, behavior, and connection that may no longer serve us. It can also involve laughter, tears, and mutual acknowledgment of the sometimes absurd, sometimes painful, and often magical experience of being human.
As a somatic therapist, I understand many forms of suffering as rooted in a disconnection from the body. Re-establishing a compassionate, embodied relationship with ourselves—through careful attention to sensation, emotion, and nervous system states—can support regulation, integration, and a deeper sense of ease. I integrate Somatic Experiencing, mindfulness meditation, and yoga to help cultivate a felt sense of safety in the body and support change from the inside out.
I have trained in a range of modalities with an emphasis on experiential, somatic, and attachment-based approaches, including Somatic Experiencing, experiential dynamic therapies (AEDP and ISTDP), Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychedelic-assisted therapy and integration, and EMDR. I remain committed to ongoing training and to a personal meditation and yoga practice, which I consider essential to my presence and grounding as a clinician.
In addition to individual therapy, I offer meditation and yoga training for individuals and groups. Please see Courses & Workshops for current offerings.
I offer free 15-minute phone consultations to explore whether we might be a good fit. Please email me to set up a time to connect.
Contact
jennie@jenniedicksonmills.com
919-200-6641
In my free time, I enjoy being with my partner and our two young children, who keep life fun and full. We love getting dirty outside, pajama dance parties, giggles and tears, and lounging with friends and family. I also love to sweat—on a trail, a treadmill, a yoga mat, or in a sauna.
My Background
Education & Work
I received my Master’s in Clinical Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. During my training, I completed a practicum at the Duke High-Risk Obstetrics Unit and a concentration-year internship at the Duke University Counseling Center. Following graduation, I remained at Duke CAPS for a two-year fellowship during my supervision and licensure period, and then continued as a full-time staff therapist.
I worked as a clinician at the Duke University Counseling Center for six years prior to opening my private practice in 2017. During that time, I worked with hundreds of students from diverse backgrounds across a wide range of concerns. I also coordinated and helped lead a two-year anti-racism initiative in collaboration with Dismantling Racism Works. After initial funding was secured, I managed the ongoing implementation of the project—coordinating between the consulting organization and the counseling center, organizing logistics, and helping sustain institutional engagement and accountability throughout the process.
As a social worker, understanding the impact of cultural oppression on psychological health is foundational to my training. Shepherding this work—while also engaging in the ongoing personal process of examining my own identity and privilege—was a meaningful part of my development, deepening my commitment to social justice and to the ongoing work of personal and cultural liberation.
Additional Clinical Training & Certifications
Completed extended post-graduate training in Clinical Supervision through Smith College School for Social Work
Completed a 3-year certification in Somatic Experiencing; registered Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)
Ongoing training in experiential dynamic therapies (EDTs), including AEDP Immersion with Diana Fosha and intensive ISTDP retreat work with Steve Shapiro
Completed Internal Family Systems (IFS) “Inner Circle” training; IFS-informed therapist
Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy and Integration through Fluence Institute (NY), developed by psychologists involved in the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine; also completed the year-long ACER Integration program developed by Rosalind Watts, PhD
B.A. in Philosophy, St. Mary’s College of Maryland (2002)
Mindfulness & Meditation Training & Experience
I was introduced to yoga and meditation in 2005, and these practices were personally transformative for me. Through my own sustained practice—and the healing I experienced—I felt called to begin sharing this work with others. I completed my first yoga teacher training in 2009 and have since taught yoga and meditation in a wide range of settings, including studios, retreat centers, and higher education.
Since 2013, I have worked as a Teacher Trainer and Trainer of Trainers with the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults (MIEA), where I now serve as a faculty member. Through this work, I have trained hundreds of teachers across the world to offer mindfulness meditation. I also developed the curriculum for MIEA’s first Train-the-Trainer program and served as the lead trainer for the inaugural cohort, many of whom now lead trainings themselves. MIEA’s work began in higher education and has since expanded into diverse settings, including the military, prisons, and high schools.
To support the depth of my own practice and teaching, I have engaged in a number of immersive retreat and training experiences, including multiple multi-day silent retreats in the Insight Meditation tradition.
Selected Retreats & Trainings
Southern Dharma Retreat Center — Transforming the Judgmental Mind, with Donald Rothberg and Eve Decker (10-day retreat, 2020)
Insight Meditation Society — Foundations of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (8-day retreat, 2020)
Southern Dharma Retreat Center — Settling, Seeing, and Spacious Awareness, with Donald Rothberg (10-day retreat, 2018)
Southern Dharma Retreat Center — Guardians of the Heart: The Four Brahma Viharas, with DaeJa Napier (8-day retreat, 2017)
Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Training, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer (2015)
Southern Dharma Retreat Center — retreat with Lucinda Green (5-day, 2014)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2010)
Yoga Training & Experience
I taught weekly yoga classes from 2009–2019, accumulating thousands of hours of teaching experience and earning the E-RYT 200 designation (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher). Over the years, I have continued to study with a range of teachers and traditions.
I have also contributed to Michelle Cassandra Johnson’s 200-hour and 300-hour Yoga Teacher Trainings, offering modules on mindfulness and yoga, the chakras, and trauma-informed teaching. Her training is deeply rooted in social justice and is a program I highly recommend.
Selected Yoga Training
Asheville Yoga Center — Chakras (Michael Johnson)
Asheville Yoga Center — The Yoga Sutras (Michael Johnson)
Asheville Yoga Center — Beginning Sanskrit (Michael Johnson)
Asheville Yoga Center — The Inner Life of Yoga (Michael Stone)
Wilmington Yoga Center — Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (David Emerson)
200-hour Yoga Alliance certification (E-RYT 200), Franklin Street Yoga (2009–2010)
I am not currently teaching weekly yoga classes, though this practice remains a meaningful part of my life. I continue to reflect on how it may take shape again in the future.