Our Team
Jenn Birch
Practice Owner, EDS, LCMHCS, RPTS, NCC
Jenn has been providing therapy services to children, adolescents, and families in Raleigh, NC and the surrounding Triangle area since becoming licensed in 2007. She founded Birch Therapy in 2010, certified as one of 10 Registered Play Therapists in Raleigh, and has cultivated a space of the most skilled and talented clinicians in this area. She loves supporting the Triangle’s families and views it an honor to be in the helping field.
With over 20 years in the child and play therapy treatment industry, Jenn is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor, Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, and National Certified Counselor. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Religion from Meredith College (2004), where she completed an internship with Wake County Public Schools along with the NC Correctional Institution for Women, and both Master’s and Educational Specialist Degrees from the University of Alabama (2006 and 2007).
Prior to private practice, she worked with women, adolescents, and children in a women’s counseling center, as well as with severely physically and sexually abused children in a children’s advocacy center. While her original training was specifically child centered in nature, Jenn currently specializes in working with neurodivergent kids and their families, particularly the twice exceptional population with multiple diagnoses including ASD, PDA, PANDAS, Anxiety, ADHD, NVLD, AuDHD, and sensory needs. Jenn sees therapy work with children as a relationship of growth and healing through the years.
Since 2022, Jenn has moved from a solo practice to leading a team of 28 clinicians. Spending her time as the visionary officer, Jenn focuses on how the team can continue to best serve the community through individual therapy, psychological testing, community and school workshops, parenting classes, and social skills groups. She is passionate about meeting the needs of the entire family, providing wrap around care with personalized matching of best clinician fit from the first call.
My Style
Jenn historically worked from a child-centered counseling approach, but now uses a multitude of techniques from Psychodynamic, Jungian, and Adlerian modalities in order to best assess and meet specific counseling goals with clients. She focuses on treating the whole child and enjoys working with parents of neurodivergent children (having several of those herself), and collaborating with other providers and schools to best set individuals up for social/emotional/academic success. She focuses her efforts on all aged clients, from toddlers to parents, with limited clients hours as she focuses her efforts on supervision and collaboration with fellow Birch Therapy colleagues for the best client care within the practice.
Currently, Jenn juggles her time between four children (ages 17, 16, 12, and 9), supervising new child therapist licensees, overseeing the Birch Therapy portfolio, and meeting with parents to help navigate the joys (and trials) of parenting. If she is not in the office, she is hoping to be at the beach or pool with a good fiction book in hand.
Certifications
NC LCMHCS #6787
Registered Play Therapist Supervisor #S3312
Circle of Security Parenting® Facilitator
Certified Parenting Coordinator
NCC Approved Clinical Supervisor #ACS-4622
National Certified Counselor #220403
Circle of Security Parenting Classroom® Facilitator
Emotionally Smart® Leadership
Training & Education
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and the Playroom
Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Play Therapy
Polyvagal Informed Therapy Master Class
Intense Clinical Supervision Training: Best Practices
Attachment and Psychoanalysis: Developing the Capacity for Secure Relating in Adults
Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas
Racial Equity Institute, Phase 1
The Neurobiology of Attachment NICABM
Supervision within Play Therapy
Enneagram Growth: The Art of Typing
Sand Tray Therapy
Child Development for the Play Therapist
Hurts are formed in relationships and are then healed/repaired within relationships. The beauty of therapy as healing comes through the unique therapeutic relationship.
Growing up, as a first born parentified daughter, I struggled with anxiety and codependency, the need to please others, constantly seeking validation and feeling overwhelmed by the weight of expectations. My anxiety was displayed in perfectionism and an intense need to control. It wasn’t until I attended therapy in college that I truly began to understand myself, set boundaries, and embrace who I was without fear. That journey transformed me in ways I never imagined, and I often think about how different my life might have been had I participated in therapy at a younger age. That realization became my “why” as a child therapist—I want to be that person for youth, to provide the support, guidance, and tools that can change lives the way therapy changed mine. Everyone deserves a space to be seen, heard, and understood, and I’m passionate about creating that for my clients.
Now, raising 4 neurodivergent kids, I have the utmost respect for parents navigating the journey of raising kids that don’t fit in a box, or more specifically, want to throw said box right back at you. I’m here for it, and in it with you. Only now can I acknowledge my worth, my good enough, and walk alongside you- you deserve it.
My Why
Fiction Book Lover
Lifelong student of boundaries & codependency
Seeker of good lattes, vanilla & chai specifically
Rearranged bedroom furniture growing up to reduce anxiety… still growing up
Passionate about kids’ mental and emotional health
Took advantage of Columbia House’s 12 CDs for 1 cent in the 90s.
Needs to wear more sunscreen
Authentically Anne in a Diana world.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Servimg
Located in the heart of Raleigh, our office is conveniently situated near Fred Fletcher Park, St. Mary's Street, Wade Avenue, and Glenwood Avenue, just minutes from Broughton High School and Raleigh Charter High School.
The office offers convenient parking, a dedicated playroom for children, and afternoon appointment availability, creating a welcoming space for children, teens, parents, and families.