Nancy Dickinson, LMSW, PhD
(She/Her)

Welcome to Heartwork

We often look for help after we have tried everything possible to have a more stable, functional, and happy life. That can be exhausting and overwhelming. While we all have the internal power to grow and change, working with a therapist trained to strengthen your own life-changing abilities can make the job easier and more pleasant. You do not need to struggle alone with distress, anxiety, anger, depression, or trauma. Regardless of your stage of life, feel free to join me as your guide to living that life you seek.

My Approach

I value the present moment most highly because that is where our work together occurs. Using therapeutic mindfulness practices to manage distress, anxiety, anger, depression, and trauma can reduce your stress and improve your well-being. Most often, it is our nervous system which determines whether we are having a lovely or difficult day. We will talk about distinguishing yourself from your nervous system. Learning to increase and manage our tolerance of problems and upset is the first step to finding and keeping our internal peace and calm and moving toward happiness. Our goal is to master managing and accepting our emotional reactivity by focusing our attention on the Here and Now. I will use interventions known to be safe, effective, and research validated.

How We Will Start

Most clients meet with me once a week, either in person at Heartwork or by remote, Zoom-based appointment. In our future present moment, I will be interested in what you are thinking and feeling about your abilities, health, social world, productivity, and people you love and/or care for. We will look at your current situation and concerns and I will create a treatment plan for you. Together we will begin to investigate those patterns of behavior that show up when you become overwhelmed, distressed, or blocked.

Specialized Trainings:

  • Mindfulness-Informed Professional Certification (CMIP)

  • Treating and Resolving Anxiety, panic disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety, and phobias certification (CCATP)

  • Intensive Trauma Treatment Certification Training: latest advances and proven techniques to resolve deeply held trauma (CCTP)

  • Complex Trauma Certification Training: Interventions from EMDR, Parts Work, CPT, and Polyvagal Theory (CCTP-II) trauma trauma treatment certification training

  • Boundaries: Breaking the cycle of unhealthy family relationships: top tools for better boundaries

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  • Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT)

  • Sexual assault and SANE exam victim advocacy and counseling

  • Medical Social Work Grady Memorial Hospital: exclusively serving people with HIV+ status, AIDS, tuberculosis

  • Intimate Partner Violence coercive controlling behaviors researcher; subject matter expert

Education:

BS University of California Davis, East Asian Religions

MSW Georgia State University, Social Work

PhD Georgia State University, Criminal Justice & Criminology

You can contact me at (404)-658-1222 ext. 60 or by email at nancy@htwcc.org.