Who I am

Hi, I’m Brianna!

Brianna Higgins, MA, LPC, NCC, Ph.D. Candidate
Counselor | Doctoral Candidate | Researcher | Presenter | Author | Advocate | Creative

I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor, National Certified Counselor, doctoral candidate, researcher, presenter, and lifelong learner with a passion for helping people better understand themselves, connect meaningfully with others, and find their voice.

At the center of the different hats I wear is a pretty simple belief: people deserve spaces where they can show up as whole human beings.

That belief shapes my work as a counselor, scholar, supervisor-in-training, presenter, advocate, and creative.

Counselor & Practice Owner

I am the founder and owner of Hope | Help | Healing Counseling, LLC, a private counseling practice serving clients in Alabama through in-person and teletherapy services.

My clinical work primarily centers on young adults navigating trauma, anxiety, neurodivergence, relationships, identity, burnout, and life transitions. My approach is integrative, drawing from psychodynamic, strengths-based, and humanistic perspectives while incorporating approaches such as Transactional Analysis, Personality-Focused Treatment, trauma-focused work, inner child work, expressive and creative arts, play, narrative therapy, video games, and tabletop role-playing games.

I’m particularly interested in the places where relationship, identity, culture, personality, creativity, and healing intersect.

Whether we are exploring long-standing relational patterns, unpacking the meaning someone has attached to an experience, using music to open a conversation, or discovering what a D&D character might reveal about identity, I believe curiosity can create powerful opportunities for growth.

Scholar, Researcher & Counselor Educator-in-Training

I earned my M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Liberty University and am currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Counselor Education and Supervision in Liberty University’s CACREP-accredited doctoral program.

My scholarship and professional interests include cultural humility, cross-racial counseling supervision, counselor development, advocacy, trauma-informed care, neurodivergence, relational processes, and creative approaches to counseling and supervision.

My dissertation research explores the lived experiences of racially and ethnically minoritized clinical supervisors as they navigate racial and cultural dynamics while providing counseling supervision to White counselors-in-training.

I have also served in leadership within Liberty University’s Rho Eta Pi Rho Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the international counseling academic and professional honor society, including serving as Chapter President. Leadership, mentorship, and helping developing counselors find their professional voice have become meaningful parts of my journey as a counselor educator-in-training.

One principle continues to shape the way I approach scholarship, clinical work, and cultural humility:

“I’m not here to be right. I’m here to get it right.”

For me, learning requires curiosity, humility, reflection, accountability, and a willingness to remain open to what we may not yet know.

Presenter, Educator & Creative

I love translating ideas from counseling theory and research into conversations and tools that people can actually use.

My presentations and professional interests have explored topics including cultural humility, clinical supervision, trauma-informed counseling, resilience, neurodivergence, music and meaning-making, and therapeutic applications of gaming and tabletop role-playing games.

I’m especially drawn to creative approaches because sometimes the most meaningful conversations begin somewhere unexpected: a song, a character, a story, a game, an image, or a question someone has never been asked before.

Before counseling became my primary professional home, creativity was already a major part of my life. I have a background in makeup artistry and previously created beauty content through BriMyselfAndEye. That chapter of my life helped deepen my appreciation for creativity, self-expression, confidence, storytelling, and the many ways people communicate who they are.

Advocacy, Accessibility & Finding Your Voice

Long before becoming a counselor, I developed a love for American Sign Language and the d/Deaf community. I earned my B.S. in Psychology with a minor in American Sign Language Interpreter Training, and that experience continues to influence how I think about communication, accessibility, culture, advocacy, and what it means to truly listen.

It also helped shape one of the beliefs that has followed me throughout my professional journey:

Everyone has a voice, whether signed or spoken, and people deserve opportunities to discover, understand, and use that voice wholeheartedly.

Beyond the Credentials

Outside of counseling, research, writing, and presenting, I’m still very much the thirty-something woman who can happily lose track of time in a coffee shop with a latte and a book.

My Christian faith is an important part of my life and how I understand meaning, humility, growth, and purpose. I’m married to my husband, Greg, and we share life with our sibling Scottish Fold cats.

When I’m not working on my dissertation or doing something counseling-related, you might find me ballroom dancing , especially Waltz or Argentine Tango, traveling somewhere new, going to an emo or punk-rock concert , watching entirely too much TV, laughing at something ridiculous online, or disappearing into a video game.

My gaming rotation has included everything from Dungeons & Dragons and Baldur’s Gate 3 to Stardew Valley, Zelda, Pokémon, and Animal Crossing.

Basically, I contain multitudes. And probably several unfinished side quests.

The Thread Through It All

Counseling. Research. Teaching. Advocacy. Creativity. Faith. Relationships. Storytelling.

They may look like separate interests, but to me, they keep returning to the same questions:

Who are we?
What shaped us?
How do we understand one another more fully?
What helps us heal, grow, and connect?
And how do we create spaces where people can authentically use their voice?

That curiosity is at the heart of the work I do.

I believe deeply in process over perfection, in approaching people with curiosity rather than assumption, and in the possibility that meaningful change often begins when someone feels safe enough to explore.

So, that’s a little about me.

I’m glad you’re here, and I hope something you find in this corner of the internet helps you learn, grow, connect, create, or get inspired by whatever life is calling you toward next.