Samantha Christopher, Ph.D.

Sam received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University after completing her internship at The Ohio State University’s Counseling and Consultation Service. After finishing her degree, she stayed at Ohio State’s counseling center and completed her Post-Doctoral Clinical Fellowship before moving back to Athens (Sam finished her undergraduate degree at OU). Sam caters the therapy experience to meet students’ specific needs and goals, and focus on variables that make each person unique – including intersecting identities, culture, and personal strengths. She approaches therapy from an integrative perspective, bringing together feminist, multicultural, and existential approaches with other therapeutic tools like narrative, solution-focused, and interpersonal process interventions. She believes a secure therapy relationship gives room for growth, self-exploration, and change – and because of this she places a great deal of importance on her relationship with students and values transparency, authenticity, and honesty in the therapy relationship. She welcomes and enjoys working with people who come to therapy with a variety of presenting concerns. These include (but are not at all limited to): grief and loss, anxiety and panic, depression, trauma, graduate student concerns, vocational/career development, adjusting and/or transitioning to new phases in life, relationship/family concerns, and identity exploration. In her personal life she practices yoga and meditation to maintain a sense of balance and uses those tools to help her continue learning about herself as a human being. She also enjoys reading, nature, running, music, eating, writing, standup comedy, Netflix-ing, spending time with friends and family, walking, and cuddling with her dogs.