Stephanie Burton, LMHC

10/13/2025

What an honor and a blessing to be part of such a special team! Thank you, Fort Wayne! 💚

10/03/2025

Don’t play hot potato with your feelings.

When difficult emotions show up—frustration, anger, disappointment, feeling called out or exposed—it can feel uncomfortable to hold them. The natural impulse is to toss them to someone else through projection, defensiveness, or blame. But when we do that, we often cause harm and miss the chance to grow.

Instead, try holding the “potato.” It may feel hot at first, but emotions cool with time. Trust that your nervous system will calm, and that you have the capacity to sit with your feelings without passing them off. That pause creates space for healing, accountability, and connection.

09/29/2025

Words carry weight. As we close put Su***de Awareness Month, let’s choose language that opens doors to healing, not shame.

Let’s talk with care. Let’s listen with compassion. Let’s remind each other: help and hope are always possible.

If you or someone you love is struggling, dial or text 9-8-8.

***deAwarenessMonth

09/24/2025

“Psychologically, these provocations weaponize gaslighting and projection. The message is: “We’re only here to have a debate. Why are you so hostile?” But the reality is that the so-called debate is not neutral. It carries rhetoric rooted in anti-Blackness, homophobia, misogyny, and other forms of hate.

When students resist, their natural emotional responses — anger, fear, frustration — are recast as proof of irrationality. This is a form of psychological manipulation designed to strip students of credibility and humanity in the public eye. It’s an abusive tactic that says: “We harm you, and if you resist, you’re the problem.”

In my latest blog, I talk about the deplorable attacks on our HBCU campuses. Read it here:

The attacks on HBCU campuses are not random. They are meticulously calculated. And that fact alone should infuriate us all.What we are witnessing is a deliberate strategy: false narrative engineers arriving uninvited, staging provocations, and waiting for students to react so they can hit record. Th...

09/23/2025

“When we think about the common trauma responses—fight, flight, freeze, fawn (people pleasing), or shut down—we often mistakenly imagine them as fixed personality traits: “I’m a fighter,” “I’m a freezer,” “I always flee.” But the truth is, trauma responses are not permanent. They can be fluid, situational, and deeply connected to both our environment and our resources at the time.”

Check out my latest blog about how trauma responses can show up over the course of our lives.

When we think about the common trauma responses—fight, flight, freeze, fawn (people pleasing), or shut down—we often mistakenly imagine them as fixed personality traits: “I’m a fighter,” “I’m a freezer,” “I always flee.” But the truth is, trauma responses are not permanent. They ...

09/18/2025

09/18/2025

FREE Mental Health Guides and Worksheets created by a Black Woman Licensed Mental Health Counselor! ✅ NEW Volumes 9-11 just dropped today! Visit www.soulfullbydesign.com and click “shop” to download your copies today! To stay in the loop for the next volumes, subscribe to my email distribution list!

08/28/2025

Introducing SoulFull Steps - A new series of FREE digital guides, tools, thought exercises, and journal prompts created to help you slow down, reflect, and take intentional steps toward healing and growth.Think of these as little companions for your soul—practical enough to use every day, but deep enough to spark real shifts in how you see yourself and move through the world. There are currently 5 volumes available on my website (1 of them specifically for my fellow therapists!). More to come!

08/26/2025

This hit different 🎯 Permission to drop the perfect parent act, your kids need you present, not perfect 💙 Full conversation with now available!

08/24/2025

FREE Download: SoulFull Steps for Couples Vol. 1 – The Mind Matters in Sexual Intimacy

This guide - a complimentary tool to my latest blog post, The Mind Matters in Sexual Intimacy - is designed to help you and your partner nurture sexual intimacy by focusing on the mental side of desire. It’s not about “fixing” what’s wrong—it’s about celebrating connection in the season you’re in, and creating new pathways for pleasure and closeness.

Your intimacy doesn’t have to get lost in the busyness of daily life. This free digital guide is designed to help couples reconnect, slow down, and remember that passion begins in the mind before it’s expressed in the body.

Practical steps to nurture closeness, joy, and playfulness—without pressure or perfection.

Whether you’re longing to reignite desire, deepen communication, or simply savor the everyday intimacy you already share, this guide offers soulful, bite-sized steps to help you start right where you are.