Your Therapist Paris
Paris McDonald, Licensed Mental Health Counselor
I’m Paris McDonald, licensed mental health counselor, Army Veteran, and trauma therapist. My approach to therapy is shaped by both clinical training and lived experience. I’ve walked through burnout, loss, transition, and the never-ending pressure to stay strong. I understand what it’s like to feel like everyone relies on you, and yet no one really sees what you’re carrying.
I specialize in helping people reconnect with themselves, rebuild relationships, and recover from the impact of trauma, whether it’s from childhood, service, betrayal, or burnout.
In our work together, I’ll show up with warmth, clarity, and a healthy dose of truth-telling. I’m not here to fix you, I’m here to walk beside you while you find your way back to yourself.
From Service to Support
My path to becoming a therapist began in the military. I trained and mentored soldiers while witnessing firsthand the strength, pressure, and resilience that military life demands. Those years taught me not only about leadership and discipline, but also about the unseen toll that constant readiness and responsibility can take emotionally, mentally, and relationally.
I also spent years as a military spouse, experiencing another side of service life the long separations, the uncertainty, and the weight that families carry while supporting their loved ones in uniform. Being part of both worlds gave me a deep understanding of how stress, trauma, and transition affect not only the individual but the people closest to them.
Those experiences opened my eyes to how often people in high-stress roles carry their pain quietly. I realized that while I had once helped others perform and push through, what many truly needed was a space to slow down, process, and heal. That realization inspired me to take a different role one focused on recovery, resilience, and connection.
Becoming A Therapist
When I transitioned out of the military, I knew I wanted to keep serving just in a different capacity. Becoming a therapist allowed me to combine structure, empathy, and an insider’s understanding of the military mindset into meaningful work that helps people heal and grow.
Today, I specialize in trauma recovery, attachment wounds, and relationship healing, with a focus on veterans, first responders, and high-performing adults who are used to being the “strong one.” My approach is trauma-informed, collaborative, and grounded in evidence-based methods like EMDR, parts work, and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT).
My clients describe me as direct but compassionate. I believe therapy should be practical, safe, and transformative a space where you can process deeply while building the skills to move forward with strength and clarity.
Why I Do
This Work
I do this work because I’ve seen what happens when people spend years in survival mode and I know what becomes possible when they finally feel safe enough to slow down.
Helping clients process trauma, reconnect with themselves, and find calm after chaos is what drives me every day.
Whether you’re a veteran navigating transition, a first responder carrying unseen stress, or a partner working to repair connection, my goal is to help you move from simply coping to truly living.
My Therapy
Philosophy
People don’t break, they adapt.
Strength and suffering can exist in the same body.
Healing requires safety, not perfection.
We repeat cycles until we feel safe enough to choose differently.
Trauma may shape you but it does not define you.
My work blends attachment theory, trauma-informed care, nervous system regulation, and relationship repair. Whether we’re working individually or as a couple, the goal is the same:
To help you feel safe enough to stop surviving and begin living again.
You’ve likely carried a lot on your own for a long time. My job is to create a space where you don’t have to.
Together, we’ll slow things down, make sense of your story, and build tools that help you regulate, recover, and reconnect with yourself and others. I don’t see people as broken, I see people doing their best to survive with the tools they’ve had. Therapy is about expanding those tools so you can truly live again.