Therapy in Lakeland that actually fits your life.
A licensed therapist and supervised graduate interns on one team, so you get matched to the right approach for your situation, not just the first open slot.
- Florida-licensed therapyA multi-clinician team on South Florida Avenue, so specialty and schedule can actually line up.
- Matched to the right approachCBT, EMDR, or DBT chosen for your situation, not assigned at random.
- In-person or Florida telehealthSee us in downtown Lakeland or by secure video anywhere in Florida.
Free · Confidential
Request a callback
A therapist coordinator calls you within one business day. No cost, no obligation.
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A therapist coordinator will reach out within one business day. If you would rather not wait, call (863) 510-2624.
A room downtown, and a team that stays put.
Therapy fails more often over a bad pairing than a bad clinician. Having three people in one Lakeland office means we can hand you to the one whose specialty actually matches your problem, and you keep sitting in the same chair with the same person week after week.
Request a callbackA search for a therapist in Lakeland returns a wall of profiles and no way to tell which of them is actually taking new clients.
Our office at 832 South Florida Avenue, near Munn Park in downtown Lakeland, runs a multi-clinician talk-therapy team covering CBT, DBT skills, EMDR, IFS, and ERP for anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, OCD, ADHD-related difficulties, grief, and relationship patterns. You can be seen in the room or by Florida telehealth, and most new clients start within a week. Call (863) 510-2624 or request an appointment online.
Polk County has grown quickly, and mental health capacity has not always kept pace. The limitation of a directory listing is that it cannot tell you who has an opening this week or whether a clinician's specialty matches your particular problem. What you get on this page instead is three named people, an address you can drive to, and a phone number answered by someone who can check the actual calendar.
The variable that decides whether therapy works is less exotic than most people expect: whether you and the person across from you are a fit. That is why the team is built the way it is. If the first pairing is wrong, you move to another clinician in the same office without starting a new intake, re-explaining your history, or waiting out another queue. Nobody treats that as a complaint.
One more thing worth saying before you scroll. Being a physical office in a mid-size city means we can do the parts of this work that a screen cannot carry — EMDR reprocessing in the room, psychological testing administered in person, and the small non-clinical fact that showing up somewhere on a Tuesday is itself a structure that helps some people keep going.
Illustrative
Our Lakeland therapy team
Lakeland is staffed by one licensed clinical supervisor and two supervised graduate and registered interns, each with a distinct specialty, so the team covers a wider range of presentations than a single-therapist practice can.
- Licensed Mental Health Counselor
- Clinical supervisor on staff
- EMDR-trained care
- Psychological testing coordination
Kaylee Mills Brenneman, Ed.S, MEd, LMHC is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Clinical Supervisor with graduate training at the specialist level (Ed.S). She oversees the intern team at Lakeland and carries her own caseload of adult clients. Coverage for therapy varies by plan; see our insurance page for the current matrix for those plans. Her focus areas are anxiety, depression, life transitions, and clinical supervision.
Skyler Anderson, RMHCI is a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern focused on trauma, PTSD, and anxiety. As a registered intern, Skyler practices under Kaylee's direct clinical supervision, which is why supervised-intern sessions are offered at a lower cost while the standard of care, case review, and documentation are the same as for a licensed clinician.
Ashley Huston is a graduate student intern completing her clinical training at Lakeland under Kaylee Brenneman's supervision. Ashley now offers EMDR therapy for trauma as part of a mind-body integrative approach, and her supervised sessions are among the more accessible options in Polk County for EMDR-trained care.
Our Lakeland office also offers psychological and psychoeducational testing, including ADHD evaluations, autism assessments, learning disability testing, and comprehensive psychological evaluations. Most therapy practices leave you to arrange this alone; Ascend helps you coordinate it so the results feed back to your ongoing therapist directly.
What happens between your call and your first appointment
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1
A real conversation, not a form
The coordinator asks what is going on, what you have tried before, what your insurance is, and which hours you could realistically keep. That last question matters more than people expect — an appointment you cannot make is not an appointment.
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We name who you would see, and why
Structured, goal-directed work points one way. Anxiety anchored to something that happened points another. Wanting EMDR specifically points to a third. You get told which clinician you are being matched with and the reasoning, before anything is booked.
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If we are the wrong office, we say so
Some presentations need a level of care outpatient therapy does not provide, and some need a specialty none of the three of us hold. We would rather send you to the right place in week one than keep the appointment and hope.
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Changing your mind costs nothing
Two sessions in, if it is not right, you switch to someone else on the team. No penalty, no explanation demanded, no starting the intake over.
Reading the letters after a therapist's name
These are not decoration and they are not interchangeable. Here is what each one actually tells you about who is in the room.
- LMHC — a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Graduate degree finished, roughly 1,500 to 2,000 hours of supervised post-graduate clinical work completed, national licensure exam passed. Practices independently.
- Ed.S — an Education Specialist degree, sitting between a master's and a doctorate, usually about a year of additional graduate work weighted toward assessment, supervision, or advanced practice.
- RMHCI — a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern. Degree finished, registered with the State of Florida, accruing supervised hours toward full licensure under a qualified supervisor.
- Graduate student intern — enrolled in a graduate counseling or clinical psychology program, completing a required practicum under direct, active supervision.
What changes across those tiers is independence of practice. What does not change is the structure of the work, the weekly case review behind it, or the documentation standard. You are told which tier you are booking before you book it.
What Polk County adults bring through the door
Anxiety and depression fill most of the schedule. After that: trauma and PTSD, OCD, the fallout of adult ADHD, grief and the big life pivots, and relationship patterns that keep repeating. We provide affirming care for LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent clients, and faith-integrated counseling for clients who want their beliefs in the room rather than parked outside.
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AnxietyMost common
Constant worry, social dread, panic that arrives without warning, or health fears that survive a clean scan.
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Depression
A first episode that flattened everything, or a low-grade version you have carried so long it feels like personality.
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Trauma and PTSD
Childhood, a crash, a medical event, a deployment. EMDR in the office, or trauma-focused CBT if the pacing needs to be gentler.
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OCD
Checking, counting, washing, or intrusive thoughts you have never said out loud. Treated with ERP.
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Adult ADHD
Not the diagnosis, the wreckage around it: missed commitments, blown-up plans, and years of accumulated shame.
Read more -
Grief and transitions
A death, a divorce, a layoff, a move, a new baby, retirement. Real disruptions, not disorders.
Read more
If what you are dealing with right now is an immediate danger to you or someone else, call 988 or 911. For everything short of that, a first appointment commits you to nothing except fifty minutes.
Anxiety disorders
More Lakeland clients start here than anywhere else. Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, health anxiety — the labels differ but the machinery underneath is similar, and the National Institute of Mental Health puts anxiety disorders among the most prevalent conditions affecting U.S. adults. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy carries the strongest research base for treating them, and it is where our clinicians usually begin. The first few sessions are spent finding the specific trigger sequence — what happens in the ninety seconds before it spikes, what you do to make it stop — because the avoidance you built to survive it is usually the thing keeping it alive. Panic and health anxiety get exposure work added, at a pace you agree to in advance.
Depression
A first major depressive episode and a persistent low mood you have had for a decade are different problems that both answer to the same opening move. The NIMH depression overview notes that for moderate to severe depression, psychotherapy combined with medication management where clinically indicated tends to outperform either on its own. Because Ascend runs a telehealth psychiatry service for Florida patients, that combination does not require you to manage two unrelated practices. Therapy itself usually opens with behavioral activation — scheduling small, specific actions before you feel like doing them — because in depression, motivation follows action rather than preceding it. It sounds too simple. It is also one of the most reliably effective things we do.
Trauma and PTSD
Childhood trauma, domestic violence, car accidents, medical trauma, and combat-related PTSD are all treated here, and Polk County's veteran population means the last of those comes up more than people assume. The primary tools are EMDR, delivered in the office by Ashley Huston, and trauma-focused CBT. Both the American Psychological Association's Clinical Practice Guideline for PTSD and the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for PTSD list them among strongly recommended treatments. The fear that stops most people from starting is that they will have to narrate the worst thing that ever happened to them, in detail, weekly, forever. EMDR is specifically built to avoid that, which is why clients who could not stay in traditional trauma talk therapy often can stay in this.
OCD
OCD is treated with Exposure and Response Prevention, which the International OCD Foundation identifies as the first-line psychotherapy for the condition. Two things are worth knowing before you book anywhere, here included. First, ERP is uncomfortable on purpose, in a structured and paced way, and a clinician who softens it into reassurance is not doing ERP. Second, that softening is common — reassurance feels kind, and it is one of the compulsions that keeps OCD running. Ask any clinician you are considering, including ours, how much specific ERP experience they have. The mechanism is simple even when the doing is hard: you meet the trigger, you skip the ritual, and your nervous system learns the anxiety comes down anyway.
ADHD-related challenges
Therapy does not diagnose ADHD. Diagnosis runs through our telehealth psychiatry service or through psychological testing at the Lakeland office. What therapy handles is everything downstream: the emotional swings, the relationships strained by forgotten commitments, and the layer of shame built up over years of being told to just try harder. The work is mostly external scaffolding — routines, reminders, accountability, structures that do not depend on remembering to be organized — plus undoing the belief that the difficulty was a character flaw all along.
Autism and neurodivergence
Affirming, non-pathologizing therapy for autistic and otherwise neurodivergent adults, built around what you actually want rather than what would make you easier for other people. We do not treat masking, eye contact, or social scripting as goals. We work on what you name as genuinely in the way: communication in a relationship that matters, sensory load you cannot keep absorbing, or the specific kind of burnout that follows years of performing normal.
LGBTQIA+ affirming care
Ascend is an affirming practice across every location and service line, and the Lakeland team is trained in affirming approaches. In practice that means your identity is not the presenting problem unless you say it is. Whatever you actually came in for gets the same evidence-based treatment any client would get, in a room where you are not spending the first session establishing that you are allowed to exist.
Grief, relationships, and faith-integrated care
A death, a divorce, a layoff from one of the distribution centers, a move, retirement, a first baby — grief and transition work is steady volume in a county this size. Individual therapy can address a relational pattern on its own, focusing on your half of a dynamic without requiring the other person to participate; if you want both people in the room, we have a dedicated page for couples therapy in Lakeland. And for clients whose faith is central rather than incidental, faith-integrated counseling is available on request. It is optional, it is never assumed, and it sits alongside evidence-based treatment rather than replacing it.
Want to know who has an opening?
One phone call gets you the real answer: who on the Lakeland team is taking clients, what they specialize in, and the soonest date they can actually see you. No obligation attaches to asking.
Second floor at 832 South Florida Avenue, or by Florida telehealth if the drive is the obstacle.
What a session actually looks like, week to week
Illustrative
Acronyms describe a protocol. What you actually want to know is how the fifty minutes are spent, and what you are asked to do afterward.
Every approach below is a different answer to one question: what do you and your clinician spend the hour doing? Some hours are spent writing things down and testing them. Some are spent tracking a feeling as it rises and falls. Some are spent with your eyes tracking a hand while an old memory gets quieter. Ask which one you are walking into before you start.
The hour where you write things down and test them
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy sessions tend to open with a quick review of the week and a short agenda you both agree to. Then you take one specific moment — the meeting you dreaded, the message you did not send — and pull it apart on paper: what happened, what you thought, what you felt in your body, what you did next. The clinician is not there to reassure you. They are there to ask what evidence you actually have. You leave with something to try before the next visit, and the next visit starts with what happened when you tried it. It is the approach with the deepest research base for anxiety and depression, and the one most likely to show a measurable shift inside a defined number of weeks.
The hour where you learn to ride the wave instead of acting on it
Our Lakeland team offers DBT-informed skills rather than a full multi-component DBT program, and the distinction is worth stating plainly. In practice the session is spent naming an emotion, rating how strong it was, and rehearsing one concrete skill for the next time it hits that hard — cold water on the face, paced breathing, a scripted sentence you can say instead of the one you would regret. Much of the hour is practice, out loud, in the room, which is precisely why clients tell us it feels less like talking and more like training. The target is not calm. The target is the few seconds of space between feeling something at full volume and doing something about it.
The hour done in the office: EMDR reprocessing
EMDR runs on an eight-phase protocol, and the early phases are not about the memory at all — they are about building enough steadiness that you have somewhere to land if a session opens more than expected. Reprocessing sessions themselves are unusually quiet. You hold a fragment of the memory in mind while following a repeated left-right cue, then report, in a sentence or two, what shifted. There is no requirement to narrate the event in detail, which is the single most common reason clients who could not tolerate traditional trauma talk therapy can tolerate this. Ashley Huston delivers EMDR at the Lakeland office, and the reprocessing phases are the part we ask clients to do in the room rather than over a screen: the pacing is easier to read in person, and if a session brings up more than expected, you are not left closing a laptop by yourself. Responses vary — some clients shift quickly, some need many more sessions, and a small number do not respond.
The hour spent negotiating with yourself
Internal Family Systems treats the mind as a set of parts rather than one voice, and a session sounds different from anything else on this list. Your clinician will slow you down at the moment you say something like "part of me wants to quit and part of me is terrified to." Then you work out what the harsh, driving part is actually protecting, and what it is afraid would happen if it stopped. It has a newer evidence base than CBT or EMDR, and we say so. It tends to fit clients who describe being at war with themselves — years of self-criticism, or a decision they have been unable to make for reasons they cannot name.
The hour that is deliberately uncomfortable: ERP for OCD
Exposure and Response Prevention is the first-line psychotherapy for OCD, and the session structure is unlike anything else here. Early on you build a ranked list of feared situations, from mildly uneasy to genuinely awful, and you agree in advance where on that list you are starting. Then the work is doing the thing and not performing the ritual that normally makes the anxiety stop. Nothing gets sprung on you; the collaborative planning is not politeness, it is part of what makes ERP work rather than simply distressing. One caution worth stating: a clinician without specific ERP training can accidentally strengthen OCD by offering reassurance, which is itself a compulsion. Ask about ERP experience directly at intake.
The hour that starts with your body, not your thoughts
Repeated or long-running trauma sometimes needs more structure than open-ended talk therapy but a gentler pace than EMDR reprocessing. Trauma-focused CBT and mind-body work fill that gap. Sessions move between the beliefs trauma installs — about safety, about trust, about whose fault it was — and grounding work for the physical side: the startle response, the hypervigilance, the going-blank. If your trauma shows up mostly in your body rather than as intrusive thoughts, say so at intake, because it changes where a clinician starts.
Why the acronym is the last thing we pick
Most Lakeland clients need one primary approach, not a sampler of five. What actually determines the choice is the shape of the problem: a single event versus a lifelong pattern, thoughts versus physical reactions, whether avoidance is holding the whole thing in place. That is an intake conversation, not a menu selection, and it is normal for the plan to change once the picture is clearer at session three than it was at session one.
Where most people start
Read this as a rough map, not a diagnosis. Plenty of clients move between approaches as the work goes on, and your clinician adjusts as your presentation gets clearer.
| What you would say is the problem | Where a Lakeland clinician usually begins |
|---|---|
| "I worry constantly and I cannot switch it off" | CBT, adding exposure work where avoidance has taken hold |
| "I cannot make myself do anything anymore" | CBT built around behavioral activation |
| "One thing happened and I still cannot get past it" | EMDR, in the office |
| "It was not one thing, it was years of it" | Trauma-focused CBT with mind-body grounding |
| "I check, count, or wash and I cannot stop" | ERP |
| "I go from zero to furious with nothing in between" | DBT-informed skills |
| "I am my own worst critic and it never lets up" | IFS |
The first eight weeks, in practice
Nobody arrives with a tidy explanation. "Something is off and I am tired of it" is a completely legitimate opening line.
Week zero: before you have met anyone
Intake paperwork goes out by email and takes most people fifteen minutes. It asks about symptoms, medical history, medications, and what you want to be different. Fill it in honestly rather than diplomatically — a clinician reading a sanitized form spends the first two sessions finding out what you left off. If you already know you want a particular clinician from the team above, say so when you call. If you have no idea, the coordinator will ask a handful of questions and make the call for you.
Week one: the first fifty minutes
Individual sessions run about fifty minutes; couples and family sessions run sixty. The first one is mostly your clinician asking questions and listening for patterns, but it is also a two-way audition. You are entitled to leave thinking "not this person," and saying so is not rude — it is useful information we would rather have in week one than week six. Before you go, you will usually book the next appointment and leave with either a small piece of homework or, at minimum, something specific to notice during the week.
Weeks two through four: the shape of the problem gets clearer
This is the stretch where the reason you called often turns out to be adjacent to the actual problem. Someone comes in for work stress and it becomes clear the sleep has been broken for two years. Someone comes in for a relationship and the pattern predates the relationship by a decade. Redirecting is normal, and you are not locked into whatever you said on the phone. If a specific protocol like EMDR or ERP looks like the right tool, your clinician explains what it involves before starting it rather than after.
Weeks five through eight: is this working?
Around here we start asking a blunt question out loud. Depending on your presenting concern, your clinician may have been using brief standardized symptom measures at intake and periodically since, so there is an objective marker sitting next to your subjective sense of how things are going. If neither is moving, that is the trigger for a conversation about changing the approach, changing clinicians, or referring you somewhere else entirely. We would rather have that conversation at session eight than let a mismatched pairing run for a year.
What you do on the other six days
The hour matters less than the week around it. A typical between-session assignment out of Lakeland looks like: write down the thought that showed up right before the panic and what actually happened afterward; use one distress-tolerance skill in a real moment and report how it went; notice each time a specific pattern fires without trying to fix it yet. Clients who do the between-session work tend to move faster and hold the gains longer than clients who treat therapy as fifty minutes of talking with no carryover. This is not a moral judgment, it is just what the arc looks like.
When you come in, and when you dial in
The short version: for anxiety, depression, and adjustment work, video and in-office sessions land in much the same place. Testing and EMDR reprocessing are the exceptions, and both happen in the office.
The American Psychological Association's telepsychology guidance supports video delivery as a legitimate format for most outpatient presentations, and Florida law lets Florida-licensed clinicians see Florida-resident clients by video anywhere in the state. In practice most Lakeland clients end up mixing: in the office when the schedule allows, by video the week the car is in the shop or a child is home sick. Same clinician either way, which is the part that matters. What we ask you to come in for is psychological testing and EMDR reprocessing — the first because it is administered in person, the second because pacing is easier to read in the room.
Things people believe about therapy that are not true
- "You have to be in crisis to deserve a spot." Most people on our schedule are functioning fine on paper and privately tired of a pattern that has not shifted on its own.
- "A good therapist tells you what to do." A good clinician gets you to see your own pattern clearly enough that the decision becomes obvious to you. Advice you did not arrive at yourself rarely survives contact with a hard week.
- "It gets worse before it gets better." True for a stretch of trauma processing, by design and briefly. Not a general law. Most anxiety and depression clients report some relief inside the first handful of sessions.
- "This takes years." Some work does. A single traumatic memory or a panic pattern can shift measurably in weeks to a few months of structured work.
- "Needing medication means therapy failed." Needing both is ordinary, which is why psychiatry sits inside the same practice instead of across town.
The questions people ask in the parking lot
"Can my employer find out?" No. What you say is protected under HIPAA and Florida confidentiality law. The exceptions are the narrow legal ones: imminent danger to you or someone else, or suspected abuse of a child or vulnerable adult.
"What if I cry, or sit there with nothing to say?" Both happen constantly and neither wastes the hour. Finding the starting point is part of the job, not a prerequisite for showing up.
"What if I picked the wrong thing to work on?" You probably did, at least partly, and that is fine. See weeks two through four.
Therapy, primary care, and psychiatry under one roof
These are three separate services with three separate scopes, and each clinician makes their own calls. What being inside one organization changes is the handoff. A Lakeland therapy client whose depression looks like it would benefit from a medication evaluation gets referred to our telehealth psychiatry service without repeating their whole history to a stranger at a new practice. A primary care patient whose provider notices something moving in the wrong direction gets referred into therapy the same way. That is the entire advantage, and it is a real one when you are tired.
For the small subset of clients with treatment-resistant depression who have not responded adequately to therapy and standard medication management, Ascend also offers ketamine therapy at our Wesley Chapel location. Ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance. The ketamine used at Ascend is a compounded preparation that is not FDA-approved; no compounded medication is FDA-approved for any use. It is given under the supervision of a licensed prescriber for treatment-resistant depression and select indications; it is not a first-line option, individual responses vary, and no particular result is promised.
If you are taking the session by video
Florida telehealth sessions run on a HIPAA-compliant platform, not a consumer video-call app. On your end: a private room, headphones if anyone else is home, and the same expectation of confidentiality you would bring to the office. Your clinician confirms you are physically in Florida at the start of each session, because state law requires it.
Paying for it without surprises
Kaylee Brenneman is paneled with several major carriers; our supervised interns are fee-for-service with superbills provided. Whatever the fee is for the option you choose, you hear it before you book, not after your first session. We are not going to tell you a plan covers something it does not.
Who is in-network at Lakeland
- Kaylee Brenneman is in-network with UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, ChampVA, and Oscar Health Plan.
- Skyler Anderson and Ashley Huston see clients fee-for-service. Ascend issues itemized superbills you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement.
- Coverage varies by plan even within the same carrier, so call (863) 510-2624 and let us check your specific one before you commit.
Three ways in
- A session with the licensed clinician — fifty minutes individual, sixty for couples or family, with a named LMHC.
- A session with a supervised intern — the same structured, evidence-based work at a more accessible rate, delivered by a clinician earlier in licensure under active weekly supervision.
- Psychological and psychoeducational testing — quoted up front by evaluation type, since these vary a great deal in scope.
Talk therapy is an eligible expense under most HSA and FSA plans, which is worth checking before you assume a fee-for-service option is out of reach.
The ten-minute phone call that removes the guesswork
Before your first appointment, call the member services number printed on the back of your card — not the general line — and work through this list. It takes about ten minutes and it is the difference between knowing what you owe and finding out later.
- Ask whether you have out-of-network outpatient mental health benefits at all. Many HMO plans simply do not; PPO and POS plans usually do.
- Ask for your out-of-network deductible and how much of it you have already met this year.
- Ask what percentage they reimburse once that deductible is met, and whether they reimburse on billed charges or on their own allowed amount. The second answer is the one that surprises people.
- Ask specifically whether CPT codes 90791 (the initial evaluation) and 90837 (individual psychotherapy, sixty minutes) are covered under that benefit.
- Ask how they want claims submitted — most now take an online upload, some still want a paper form.
- Write down the reference number for the call. If they tell you something wrong, that number is your evidence.
What a superbill is, and what it is not
A superbill is an itemized receipt: your diagnosis code, the CPT code for the service, the date, and what you paid. We produce it promptly after your visit and you submit it to your insurer yourself. What it is not is a promise of payment. Your plan decides whether it reimburses, at what percentage, and whether your out-of-network deductible has to be satisfied first. Some clients get a meaningful share back. Some get nothing because their plan has no out-of-network mental health benefit at all. The phone call above is how you find out which one you are before rather than after.
How we tell whether this is actually working
We do not ask you to take improvement on faith. Depending on what brought you in, your clinician may use brief standardized symptom measures at intake and periodically after, so there is a number sitting next to your own sense of how the weeks are going. When neither the measure nor your own read has moved after a reasonable stretch, that is not a reason to keep going quietly — it is the trigger for a direct conversation about changing the approach, changing clinicians, or referring you elsewhere.
What else is available in Polk County
Every option here has a real tradeoff. You should know ours before you dial.
| Where you could go | Range of clinicians | Sitting in a room together | Testing and EMDR under the same roof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ascend Mind and Body, Lakeland | Licensed clinician plus supervised interns | South Florida Avenue, downtown | Both, in this office |
| A solo practitioner in Lakeland or Winter Haven | One person, one specialty | Usually yes | Depends entirely on the individual |
| A subscription therapy app | Assigned by an algorithm | Video only | Neither |
| A community mental health agency | Broad, but assigned rather than chosen | Usually yes | Sometimes, often with a waitlist |
A solo therapist gives you continuity with one person and no way to change specialty in-house if the problem turns out to be something else. An app is quick to sign up for and gives you no control over who you get. A community agency can be the right answer on cost and often has the longest wait.
One thing we will not let stand unsaid: a supervised-intern session is not a budget imitation of therapy. It is the same structured approach, the same weekly case review, the same documentation, delivered by someone earlier in the licensure path. The lower rate reflects where they are in their training, not a lower standard of care.
Illustrative
Image illustrative. Our office is on the second floor on South Florida Avenue in downtown Lakeland, near Munn Park.
Our Lakeland clinic, and who we see
We are on South Florida Avenue near Munn Park in downtown Lakeland, open Monday through Friday, and we regularly see clients driving in from across Polk County.
Ascend Mind and Body, Lakeland
832 South Florida Avenue, Suite 1, Floor 2
Lakeland, FL 33801
Phone: (863) 510-2624
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Second floor, between Memorial Boulevard and Lime Street. Street parking is available plus a lot behind the building. From I-4, take the Memorial Boulevard exit and head south. Get directions.
Drive times from around Polk County
| From | Approximate drive time |
|---|---|
| Winter Haven | 20 to 25 minutes via US-92 |
| Auburndale | 15 to 20 minutes via US-92 |
| Bartow | 20 to 25 minutes via US-98 |
| Plant City | 25 to 30 minutes via I-4 |
| Haines City | 25 to 30 minutes via US-17/92 |
| Mulberry | 15 to 20 minutes via FL-37 |
We serve clients from Lakeland, Winter Haven, Auburndale, Bartow, Plant City, Haines City, Mulberry, and surrounding Polk County. Polk County has grown quickly, and mental health access has not always kept pace; several established local practices have long waitlists, and telehealth-only options do not cover in-person testing or in-office EMDR work. A multi-clinician office in downtown Lakeland, with both in-person and telehealth options under one roof, is a direct response to that gap.
Lakeland is one of three in-person Ascend locations in the Tampa Bay and Central Florida area, alongside Tampa/Carrollwood and Wesley Chapel, plus statewide Florida telehealth for psychiatry and talk therapy. The practice covers four service lines: primary care, psychiatry, ketamine therapy, and talk therapy, which is why a Lakeland therapy client who also needs a physical, a medication evaluation, or ketamine therapy can be referred within the same organization rather than starting over elsewhere.
Related Lakeland care: couples therapy in Lakeland and telehealth psychiatry for Lakeland when medication support is indicated alongside therapy.
What therapy will not do for you
It will not be quick, it will not work identically for everyone, and it will not do much if the only place anything changes is inside our office for fifty minutes a week. It also will not fix a situation that needs changing rather than processing.
Start with the things we cannot promise. We cannot tell you EMDR will resolve your trauma in six sessions, or that any approach behaves the same way in two different people. Research summarized by the National Institute of Mental Health shows psychotherapy helps most people who engage with it consistently. "Helps most people" is a population statement. You are one person, and your response depends on your condition, your history, and how consistently you show up and do the harder parts.
Here is a specific limit worth naming, because it comes up often in a working county like this one. Therapy is very good at changing how you relate to a situation. It is not a substitute for changing the situation. If you are in an unsafe home, working a schedule no human body can sustain, or carrying a financial crisis, therapy can help you think clearly and decide well, and it cannot make an untenable arrangement tenable. A clinician who lets you spend a year processing something that needed to be left is not doing you a favor.
What we can say we control: the fit between you and your clinician, which is one of the most consistently identified predictors of whether any of this works, and the reason we run a team rather than one generalist. Whether the approach is structured, because for a specific diagnosable problem, structured beats open-ended. And whether we tell you the truth when it is not working, which is a choice a practice makes rather than a technique.
Signals it is time to change something
- Six to eight sessions in, engaging honestly, and the specific thing you came for has not budged at all.
- You dread the appointment in a way that feels like avoiding the work rather than ordinary discomfort with a hard subject.
- Your clinician runs the same play no matter what you bring in, rather than adapting to what is actually in front of them.
- You have started editing what you say to keep sessions comfortable.
- You are better, and you have both stopped talking about what "finished" would look like.
None of that means therapy failed as a category. It usually means this pairing or this approach has run its course, and moving to a different clinician on the Lakeland team or a different method is an ordinary step, not an admission of anything.
What we do not treat here
Outpatient talk therapy is not the right level of care for active psychosis, an eating disorder requiring medical monitoring, a substance use disorder needing detox or structured programming, or acute risk that belongs in an emergency department. If that is what is actually happening, we will say so at intake and point you to the right level of care rather than take you on and hope it holds.
For a closer look at any single condition treated at Lakeland, see: anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, adult ADHD, grief and loss, and life transitions.
Questions Lakeland clients ask before they call
Practical answers about the office, the team, the paperwork, and what the first month looks like.
Where is the Lakeland office, and where do I park?
We are at 832 South Florida Avenue, Suite 1, Floor 2, Lakeland, FL 33801, on the second floor between Memorial Boulevard and Lime Street, a short walk from Munn Park. There is street parking out front and a lot behind the building. Coming from I-4, take the Memorial Boulevard exit and head south. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and the phone number is (863) 510-2624.
Can I actually be seen in the room, or has everything moved to video?
In the room, if that is what you want. Lakeland is a physical office with clinicians who see clients face to face every week. Florida telehealth is offered as an option, not as a replacement, and plenty of clients use both depending on the week. Two things we ask you to come in for: psychological testing, which is administered in person, and EMDR reprocessing.
Who would I be sitting across from at the Lakeland office?
One of three people. Kaylee Mills Brenneman, Ed.S, MEd, LMHC is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Clinical Supervisor who carries her own adult caseload. Skyler Anderson, RMHCI is a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern focused on trauma, PTSD, and anxiety. Ashley Huston is a graduate student intern who provides EMDR as part of a mind-body integrative approach. Both interns practice under Kaylee's direct supervision. You are told at intake exactly who you would be working with and where they are in licensure.
How soon could I get a first appointment in Lakeland?
Most new clients are scheduled within one week. Call (863) 510-2624 and a coordinator will check current openings across the team and tell you the soonest real one rather than adding you to a list.
Is EMDR available in the office, and who provides it?
Yes. Ashley Huston provides EMDR at the Lakeland office as part of a mind-body integrative approach. We deliver the reprocessing phases in person rather than by video, because pacing is easier to read in the room and because if a session opens more than expected, you are not left closing a laptop alone. Responses to EMDR vary: some clients shift quickly, some need considerably more sessions, and a small number do not respond.
Do you do ADHD, autism, or learning-disability testing at Lakeland?
Yes. The Lakeland office offers psychological and psychoeducational testing, including adult ADHD evaluations, autism assessments, learning disability testing, and comprehensive psychological evaluations. Testing is administered in person and quoted up front by evaluation type. Results feed back to your ongoing therapist directly rather than leaving you to carry a report between two unconnected practices.
What is the practical difference between an LMHC and a registered intern?
Licensure stage, not standard of care. An LMHC has finished a graduate program, completed roughly 1,500 to 2,000 hours of supervised post-graduate clinical work, passed a national licensure exam, and can practice independently. A Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern has finished the degree and is registered with the State of Florida to accrue supervised hours toward that license. A graduate student intern is completing a required practicum under direct supervision. All three deliver structured, evidence-based therapy with the same case review and documentation behind it.
Which insurance plans work at the Lakeland office?
Kaylee Brenneman is in-network with UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, ChampVA, and Oscar Health Plan. Skyler Anderson and Ashley Huston see clients fee-for-service, and we issue itemized superbills you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement. Plans vary inside the same carrier, so call and let us verify your specific one before you book. Therapy is also an eligible HSA and FSA expense.
What if I want to switch to a different therapist partway through?
You can, and we would rather you did than quietly stop coming. Moving to a different clinician on the Lakeland team carries no penalty and no awkward conversation you have to initiate alone. Fit between client and clinician is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy helps, which is exactly why we run a team instead of one generalist.
Do you see clients driving in from Winter Haven, Bartow, or Haines City?
Regularly. Winter Haven runs about 20 to 25 minutes on US-92, Auburndale 15 to 20, Bartow 20 to 25 on US-98, Plant City 25 to 30 via I-4, Haines City 25 to 30 on US-17/92, and Mulberry 15 to 20 on FL-37, all outside rush hour. If the drive is the thing standing between you and consistent attendance, ask about doing follow-up sessions by Florida telehealth with the same clinician.
How long is a session, and how often would I be coming in?
Individual sessions run about fifty minutes; couples and family sessions run about sixty. Weekly is standard to begin with, because momentum matters early. Once things are moving, plenty of clients step down to every other week and then to a maintenance cadence. That decision is made with your clinician rather than dictated by a package.
What should I bring to a first appointment?
Your insurance card and photo ID, a list of any medications you take, and, if you have seen someone before, the name of the practice so records can be requested with your consent. Beyond that, nothing. You do not need a prepared explanation. Turning up and saying you are not sure where to start is a completely ordinary opening.
Can I mix in-office and video sessions week to week?
Yes, and most Lakeland clients end up doing exactly that. In the office when the schedule allows, by video the week the car is in the shop or a child is home sick. It is the same clinician either way, which is the part that matters. The exceptions we ask you to attend in person are psychological testing and EMDR reprocessing.
Do you offer couples or family sessions in Lakeland?
Yes. Couples and family sessions run about sixty minutes at the Lakeland office, and there is a dedicated page for couples therapy in Lakeland with more detail. Individual therapy can also address a relationship pattern on its own, focused on your half of the dynamic, if the other person is not willing or available to attend.
Can my faith be part of the work rather than left at the door?
If you want it to be. Faith-integrated counseling is available on request at Lakeland for clients whose beliefs are central rather than incidental. It is optional, it is never assumed, and it sits alongside evidence-based treatment rather than replacing it. If you would rather keep faith out of the room entirely, that is equally fine and nobody will raise it.
What if I need medication as well as therapy?
Needing both is ordinary, not a sign therapy has failed. Ascend runs a telehealth psychiatry service for Florida patients, so a Lakeland therapy client whose presentation looks like it would benefit from a medication evaluation is referred internally rather than starting a fresh intake at an unrelated practice. Each clinician still makes their own independent decisions; what changes is the speed and quality of the handoff.
Can therapy help with work stress or burnout if I do not have a diagnosis?
Yes, and a diagnosis is not the price of admission. A large share of the Lakeland caseload is people functioning fine on paper who are privately worn down by a pattern that has not resolved on its own. Burnout, a job that has stopped fitting, chronic overcommitment, and the specific exhaustion of holding a household together all respond to structured work.
What happens if therapy is not helping me?
We raise it rather than wait for you to. Depending on your presenting concern, your clinician may use brief standardized symptom measures at intake and periodically after, so there is an objective marker next to your own read on how things are going. If neither has moved after a reasonable stretch, that triggers a direct conversation about changing the approach, changing clinicians, or referring you elsewhere. Therapy that is not working is a problem to solve, not a fact to accept.
Will anything I say get back to my employer or my family?
No. What you say in session is protected under HIPAA and Florida confidentiality law. The exceptions are the narrow legal ones every licensed clinician in the state operates under: imminent danger to you or someone else, and suspected abuse of a child or vulnerable adult. Your employer is not notified that you attend, and family members are not given information without your written consent.
Do you have appointments outside standard working hours?
Office hours run Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Availability inside those hours varies by clinician, and the earliest and latest slots go quickly. If a standard weekday appointment is genuinely impossible with your shift pattern, say so when you call, because a video session on a day you are home is often easier to fit than an office visit.
Is a supervised-intern session a lesser standard of care?
No. It is the same structured, evidence-based approach, the same weekly case review, and the same documentation, delivered by a clinician earlier in the licensure path under active supervision by Kaylee Brenneman. The lower rate reflects where the clinician is in training, not a reduced standard. What you should expect is to be told clearly at intake who you would be seeing and what their stage is.
I have never done therapy and I do not know what to say. Is that a problem?
It is the most common way people start. Your clinician asks the questions in the first session; you do not need to arrive with a thesis about your own psychology. "Something is off and I am tired of it" is a completely legitimate opening line, and finding the starting point together is part of the job rather than a prerequisite for showing up.
Do you treat OCD at the Lakeland office, and is that specifically ERP?
Yes, with Exposure and Response Prevention, which the International OCD Foundation identifies as the first-line psychotherapy for OCD. It is worth asking any clinician you are considering, ours included, how much specific ERP experience they have. A clinician who responds to obsessive fear with reassurance is feeding the compulsion rather than treating it, and that mistake is common enough to be worth screening for directly.
What is not treated at the Lakeland office?
Outpatient talk therapy is not the right level of care for active psychosis, an eating disorder requiring medical monitoring, a substance use disorder needing detox or structured programming, or ongoing acute risk. If that is the picture at intake, we say so and point you to the appropriate level of care rather than take you on and hope it holds. If you are in immediate danger, call 988 or 911.
Still have a question? Talk it through with our team.
863 510-2624Sources
- American Psychological Association, Clinical Practice Guideline for PTSD: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- American Psychological Association, Guidelines for the Practice of Telepsychology
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs / Department of Defense, Clinical Practice Guideline for PTSD
- World Health Organization, mhGAP Intervention Guide
- International OCD Foundation, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
- National Institute of Mental Health, Anxiety Disorders
- National Institute of Mental Health, Depression
- National Institute of Mental Health, Mental Illness Statistics
This page is educational and does not replace an individualized clinical evaluation. Ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance. The ketamine used at Ascend is a compounded preparation that is not FDA-approved; no compounded medication is FDA-approved for any use. It is given under the supervision of a licensed prescriber for treatment-resistant depression and select indications; individual responses vary and no particular outcome is promised.
Start with a conversation, not a commitment
Tell us what has been going on and we will tell you which of the three clinicians here is the right starting point, and when they can see you. Most people are on the calendar within a week, in the office downtown or by video if that is easier.
In crisis right now? Call or text 988 anytime. Therapy is not an emergency service.