Katerina Philbrick, M.S., LPC, C-NIP | Therapist Guilford, CT

Hi, I'm Katerina.

Therapist, former scientist, nature lover, feminist. Fellow traveler.

Schedule a free consultation

A little bit of my story…

I became a therapist so that I could become a nature therapist. 

My path here hasn’t been a straight line (and I can guess, if you’re here, yours hasn’t been either).

For many years I was a scientist working at Yale. It was the career I had fought hard for, coming from a working-class Brooklyn family where girls weren't exactly encouraged toward science, and I built it slowly, through community college, single motherhood, and a lot of stubbornness. 

But somewhere along the way, the work started crushing me–I was losing parts of me, bit-by-bit, without realizing. One day I emptied my desk and left.

I drove to the White Mountains, set up a tent, and stayed for two weeks. I went in numb, but slowly, between the walks, the trees, and the sounds of nature, old parts of me started to wake back up. In a little bookshop there, I discovered there was an entire field built on what I had just experienced: nature as therapy. It was the lightbulb moment of my life. I drove home singing in my car. 

So I went back to school, became a therapist, and trained as a certified nature therapy practitioner. I know what it's like to lose yourself, and I know the way back. That's the work I do today.

My practice centers on women, across every stage of life.

The women I see may be anxious and feel like they’re missing out on their own lives. They may be sad more days than not. They're navigating motherhood, divorce, an empty nest, menopause, retirement, or a hard relationship with an adult child, and wondering, "Is this what my life is now?"

Many of them are 40, 50, 60 and up, and they tell me how hard it was to find a therapist who actually understands this stretch of life rather than treating it like an afterthought. That's a big part of why I do this work. The challenges unique to women, especially as we get older, don't get the attention they deserve. Here, they're the heart of everything.

When women sit down with me, they often stop mid-sentence and say, "you get it." I do. I've been through more than a few chapters in my life. And I’m honored to be even a little part of my clients' stories.

What it’s like to sit with me

I'm easy to talk to and I'll share in your joys as readily as I'll sit with you in the hard stuff. Nothing you say will shock me. You don't have to soften anything or be the composed version of yourself here. The feelings you've been told you shouldn't have: the anger, the resentment, the "I love my family but…' All of it is welcome.

I'm a feminist therapist, and feminist theory runs through everything I do. I honor women. I think we are innately strong, intuitive, and yes, a little magical. I say that as a former scientist, and I stand by it. Much of my work is helping women learn to trust what they already know.

And whenever it helps, we let nature in. That might mean a walk-and-talk session on a lakeside trail or therapy in the gazebo on my property. Or it might just mean my office, which is full of plants, birdsong, and the scent of cedar.

The official stuff

    • M.S., Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)

    • Certified Nature-Informed Practitioner (C-NIP)

    • Women's Mental Health Specialist

    • Certified Midlife & Aging Specialist

    • Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) trained

    • Certified Wilderness First Responder

    • Ongoing training in IFS and schema therapy

    • In person in Guilford, CT

    • Online in CT, VT, ME, and FL

    • $150 per 50-60 minute session

    • CT Husky and Magellan/Yale Health accepted; more insurance options are in the works, so feel free to ask in our consult

If any of this resonated with you, let's talk.

The consultation is free and it's 15-20 minutes. We can see if it feels like a good fit and then take it from there.

Get Started