New Growth Care

Who We Are

Mary Bernard and Ellis Thomas met in graduate school studying clinical mental health counseling, where they served as president and vice president of Chi Sigma Iota, the national counseling honor society. Through this collaboration, they created peer support groups for counseling students, began advanced trainings (EMDR, CBT, Accelerated Resolution Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Method Couples Therapy) and began brainstorming what would become New Growth Care. Taking what they learned from working with other group practices, Mary and Ellis founded New Growth Care in 2022, in order to create a space where highly trained therapists could collaborate safely on complex issues in a client-centered environment.

We offer unique, comprehensive and evidence-based therapy services that work to help you reach your goals. We started New Growth Care to break the mold, moving beyond the arbitrary limits on care that have become the norm in managed care settings. We are guided first and foremost by the needs and goals of our clients. Our clinicians are highly trained, caring, and collaborative - we work together to ensure the unique context of your life is honored and considered within individual and relationship therapy.

Meet Our Team

Ellis Thomas, MS, PLMHC

Ellis received his Master of Science degree at Stetson University, completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Antioch University, studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade - Los Angeles, and has studied vipassana meditation. During his time at Stetson, Ellis served as vice president of the Chi Sigma Iota chapter, the national counseling honor society. Ellis works with adults, couples, and teens, and specializes in treatment-resistant depression, people pleasing, relationship challenges, and PTSD. He creates a supportive, safe, and judgement free environment in therapy. He believes that your experiences and concerns deserve to be honored and heard in a respectful way.

Ellis is trained in many evidence-based mental health techniques, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Emotionally Focused Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, Expressive Arts, Psychodrama and Gottman Method couples therapy. He also offers therapy intensives, which are longer sessions (2 hours or more). Ellis is affirming of all identities. Please reach out if you would like to schedule a free consultation.

Mary Bernard, MS, LMHC

Mary is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who completed her Master of Science degree at Stetson University, where she previously earned her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and French Literature. During her time at Stetson, Mary served as president of the Chi Sigma Iota chapter, the national counseling honor society. Prior to studying counseling, Mary worked with young adults in higher education for a decade, first as a French instructor and then as an academic advisor. Mary offers academic consulting in addition to counseling, which she approaches from an existential perspective, seeking to understand each client’s worldview in the context of their life experience. She offers a place to explore questions, hopes, struggles and joys within a safe, connected therapeutic relationship free of judgment.

Mary has pursued training in ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), IFS (Internal Family Systems), Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Expressive Arts, Psychodrama, and Sand Tray Therapy. Mary works with individuals and couples, focusing on autism, dissociative disorders, trauma and PTSD, and questions of identity. She is affirming of LGBTQIA+ identities and neurodivergence. Please reach out for a free consultation.

What We Offer

Individual Psychotherapy

Our clinicians invest time outside of your sessions into research and training to offer you effective, evidence-based care. Our team's training includes Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Expressive Arts, Sand Tray and Psychodrama. We offer trauma-informed care for PTSD, autism, anxiety, and depression, in addition to each clinician's individual areas of expertise.
Relationship Co-Therapy

Mary and Ellis developed their unique approach to relationship therapy by integrating evidence-based approaches such as Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy in a setting that includes two clinicians and all members of the relationship. This method helps all parties feel heard, and promotes a safe environment, by avoiding any one person feeling “ganged up on,” which can happen in traditional couples therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an evidence-based therapy that effectively treats depression and anxiety by retraining your thinking patterns and teaching you coping skills.
EMDR

EMDR is an evidence-based treatment that helps clients who experience trauma, anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, and distressing life experiences. EMDR engages both sides of the body using bilateral stimulation, which engages both hemispheres of the brain, allowing a client to make new meaning of past experiences.
Sand Tray Therapy

Sand Tray Therapy uses the neural circuitry of attachment to help clients better understand themselves. By creating a model of a problem, memory, or self identity in the sand tray using miniature figures, a client is able to see, move and grasp what often feels intangible or confusing while being compassionately witnessed by the therapist. By having distance from what is created, the client can process without becoming overwhelmed.
Internal Family Systems

Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is an approach that helps a client understand the protective and wounded parts of themselves (and their partner(s)), and how those parts are showing up within their relationships.
Gottman Method

The Gottman Method, based on 30 years of research, helps people in relationships learn tools that work to maintain and strengthen that relationship over the long term.
Emotionally Focused Therapy

Emotionally Focused Therapy, based on attachment research, helps clients in relationships understand and disrupt their conflict cycle, repair ruptures in the relationships, and learn to express and meet one another's emotional needs.
Expressive Arts

Expressive arts therapies engage the right hemisphere of your brain, the creative and emotional center of your nervous system. This helps make therapy a whole-brain experience and encourages growth of new neural pathways as you grow and heal.