The ELBOW TREE GROUP is a family of allied businesses that all work very closely together. Our humble beginnings go back to the summer of 2006, with one counselor (Greg Seymour), a couch, and a rented office in the Southern Saddlery Building in Chattanooga, TN. At that time, our founder was compelled to create a counseling experience that was more user friendly, more nimble, more accessible, more relationship-based, with better customer service. The freedom to wear flip flops to the office had to be part of the deal!
So, ELBOW TREE CHRISTIAN COUNSELING was born. { Learn more about ELBOW TREE in Chattanooga}
Right around the same time Elbow Tree opened its doors, I (Hayne Steen) jumped into grad school to study Marriage and Family Therapy. Three years later, I designed my own clinical internship at Elbow Tree offering counseling services to local college students at no cost for an entire year. For the next seven years, my entrepreneurial heart came alive! ELBOW TREE clinicians and supervisors generously exposed me to the inner workings of building a deeply local and regionally trusted private practice. This introduced me to the CISM model and opportunities to be trained to serve on a global disaster response team.
In June of 2017, I joined my family on a new adventure to St. Augustine, FL where my wife, Ruth Ann, became the area director for Young Life. That's also when we launched ELBOW TREE CHRISTIAN COUNSELING in Florida and it continues to rapidly expand along the Northeast Florida Coast with offices located in St. Augustine and Jacksonville Beach. In the last five years, we have supervised 16 interns and have grown our clinical team to 16 counselors! For the last four years, I have been serving on a Mobile Crisis Response Team performing risk assessments for children and adolescents experiencing a mental health crisis in Saint Johns County. { EMAIL US }
In August of 2017, we launched SELF & SOUL, a distinct soul care initiative designed to help faith leaders cultivate a rich inner life. Over the last five years, we've hosted over twenty individual week-long Soul Care Intensives for worn out and weary leaders from all over the country. A Soul Care Intensive is a dedicated time, most often 3-5 days, focused on the care and recovery of self and soul. For many, an intensive comes after a particularly intense season of life and service. For others, it can serve as a creative launching point for your professional sabbatical. { EMAIL US }
We know leaders get crispy and experience unique forms of exhaustion. In certain professional sectors, many leaders experience the painful build up of trauma residue and PTSD. We've recently dedicated the ELBOW TREE COOPERATIVE to partner with organizations and agencies to provide first responders with individual and couples counseling. In January 2023, we will officially launch this exciting initiative! We will be continuously cultivating a team of specialized counselors who are uniquely poised throughout our community to serve mission critical teams made up of first responders and veterans. { EMAIL US }
Ruth Ann Steen is also launching a new restorative paddling venture called STĀ PADDLING. For 27 years, Ruth Ann has been pursuing and building friendships with significantly hurt and traumatized teenagers. Part of this experience has been inviting teenagers and college students on life changing adventures to experience wonder in wilderness places. Research reveals that paddle boarding is a deeply restorative resource that involves the whole person. Repetitive motion for short periods of time calm the body and decrease your levels of cortisol, the main stress hormone. STĀ Paddling will host a suite of "Restorative Stand Up Paddling" opportunities for individuals, couples, and small groups. { EMAIL US }
The Elbow Tree Group finds its deepest roots and meaning within the beautiful mysteries of the Christian faith and all of our staff are nicely equipped to meet you in that place. That being said, ALL folks are welcome and you can show up as you are. You get to choose the level of faith integration you prefer to include, or none at all. Alongside our deep focus on heart and soul, we try to remain on the leading edge of what the fields of psychology, traumatology and mental health have to offer. We work with a very wide variety of people, and we can match you with a staff person that is right for you.
If you are human, we can help!
So, ELBOW TREE CHRISTIAN COUNSELING was born. { Learn more about ELBOW TREE in Chattanooga}
Right around the same time Elbow Tree opened its doors, I (Hayne Steen) jumped into grad school to study Marriage and Family Therapy. Three years later, I designed my own clinical internship at Elbow Tree offering counseling services to local college students at no cost for an entire year. For the next seven years, my entrepreneurial heart came alive! ELBOW TREE clinicians and supervisors generously exposed me to the inner workings of building a deeply local and regionally trusted private practice. This introduced me to the CISM model and opportunities to be trained to serve on a global disaster response team.
In June of 2017, I joined my family on a new adventure to St. Augustine, FL where my wife, Ruth Ann, became the area director for Young Life. That's also when we launched ELBOW TREE CHRISTIAN COUNSELING in Florida and it continues to rapidly expand along the Northeast Florida Coast with offices located in St. Augustine and Jacksonville Beach. In the last five years, we have supervised 16 interns and have grown our clinical team to 16 counselors! For the last four years, I have been serving on a Mobile Crisis Response Team performing risk assessments for children and adolescents experiencing a mental health crisis in Saint Johns County. { EMAIL US }
In August of 2017, we launched SELF & SOUL, a distinct soul care initiative designed to help faith leaders cultivate a rich inner life. Over the last five years, we've hosted over twenty individual week-long Soul Care Intensives for worn out and weary leaders from all over the country. A Soul Care Intensive is a dedicated time, most often 3-5 days, focused on the care and recovery of self and soul. For many, an intensive comes after a particularly intense season of life and service. For others, it can serve as a creative launching point for your professional sabbatical. { EMAIL US }
We know leaders get crispy and experience unique forms of exhaustion. In certain professional sectors, many leaders experience the painful build up of trauma residue and PTSD. We've recently dedicated the ELBOW TREE COOPERATIVE to partner with organizations and agencies to provide first responders with individual and couples counseling. In January 2023, we will officially launch this exciting initiative! We will be continuously cultivating a team of specialized counselors who are uniquely poised throughout our community to serve mission critical teams made up of first responders and veterans. { EMAIL US }
Ruth Ann Steen is also launching a new restorative paddling venture called STĀ PADDLING. For 27 years, Ruth Ann has been pursuing and building friendships with significantly hurt and traumatized teenagers. Part of this experience has been inviting teenagers and college students on life changing adventures to experience wonder in wilderness places. Research reveals that paddle boarding is a deeply restorative resource that involves the whole person. Repetitive motion for short periods of time calm the body and decrease your levels of cortisol, the main stress hormone. STĀ Paddling will host a suite of "Restorative Stand Up Paddling" opportunities for individuals, couples, and small groups. { EMAIL US }
The Elbow Tree Group finds its deepest roots and meaning within the beautiful mysteries of the Christian faith and all of our staff are nicely equipped to meet you in that place. That being said, ALL folks are welcome and you can show up as you are. You get to choose the level of faith integration you prefer to include, or none at all. Alongside our deep focus on heart and soul, we try to remain on the leading edge of what the fields of psychology, traumatology and mental health have to offer. We work with a very wide variety of people, and we can match you with a staff person that is right for you.
If you are human, we can help!
