Licensed Psychologist in North Carolina (pending), Maryland, and PSYPACT States
Specialties & Therapeutic Approach
Dr. Kourtney Bennett is a licensed psychologist who provides therapy to adults navigating trauma, major life transitions, identity development, neurodivergence, career concerns, and burnout. Dr. Bennett has a particular interest in forms of trauma that arise not only from isolated events but from navigating environments that are unsafe, invalidating, or oppressive, or fundamentally misaligned with a person’s needs. Many of Dr. Bennett’s clients have spent years feeling ashamed that ordinary demands seem unusually difficult, blaming themselves for burnout, or wondering why they struggle to feel safe, understood, or at ease in relationships and professional or academic settings. Some are newly recognizing how trauma or neurodivergence may help explain longstanding experiences of masking, overfunctioning, exhaustion, disconnection, or self-doubt.
Dr. Bennett helps clients examine their experiences within the contexts in which they developed. She recognizes that distress can reflect both individual vulnerabilities and the impact of relationships, institutions, cultural expectations, discrimination, and systems that were not designed to support healthy or sustainable functioning. Her approach does not ignore areas where personal change may be helpful; instead, it seeks to distinguish what belongs to the individual from what has been imposed or reinforced by the environments around them.
This process can help clients move away from self-pathologizing and toward a more accurate, compassionate understanding of themselves. Together, Dr. Bennett and her clients identify the patterns, skills, boundaries, supports, and choices that may strengthen their well-being.
Across presenting concerns, Dr. Bennett brings a collaborative, relational, culturally responsive, and compassionate approach to therapy. She values curiosity, transparency, and the development of a therapeutic relationship in which clients feel safe enough to explore painful experiences, reclaim self-trust, and imagine new possibilities for growth.
Trauma-Informed Therapy For Adults
Dr. Bennett works with adults who are beginning to recognize the impact of trauma on their emotions, relationships, identity, and sense of safety. This may include individuals who have experienced complex or relational trauma but have not previously understood their experiences through a trauma-informed lens.
She supports clients in making sense of patterns that may once have been protective but now contribute to disconnection, emotional overwhelm, difficulty trusting others, shame, or uncertainty about their own needs. Rather than reducing clients to symptoms or diagnoses, Dr. Bennett helps them understand how their responses developed and why those responses may have made sense within the circumstances they faced.
Her areas of interest include complex PTSD, relational trauma, medical trauma, religious trauma, oppression-related trauma, and the psychological impact of navigating systems that may feel invalidating, coercive, inaccessible, or unsafe. She is also especially interested in supporting individuals who have experienced trauma related to pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive healthcare, or other interactions with medical systems.
Therapy may include developing greater emotional awareness, strengthening interpersonal effectiveness, reducing shame and self-blame, improving boundaries, identifying sources of community, and building a more secure and compassionate relationship with oneself.
Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapy For Adults
Dr. Bennett provides neurodivergent-affirming therapy for adults who have ADHD, autism, executive functioning differences, or questions about whether neurodivergence may help explain their experiences.
Many of the adults she works with have learned to mask, overprepare, overperform, or suppress their needs in order to meet neurotypical expectations. Although these strategies may have supported achievement or acceptance, they can also contribute to chronic exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, isolation, and a diminished sense of authenticity.
Dr. Bennett helps clients better understand their needs, recognize their strengths, and develop sustainable supports.
This work may include exploring masking, sensory and emotional needs, executive functioning, relationships, self-advocacy, workplace expectations, identity development, and the intersection of neurodivergence with trauma, culture, gender, and other aspects of identity.
Identity, Culture & Oppression-Related Trauma
Dr. Bennett is passionate about working with women of color and individuals who want to explore the ways culture, identity, discrimination, and systemic oppression have influenced their emotional well-being and life experiences.
She recognizes that distress does not occur in a vacuum. Experiences within families, workplaces, religious communities, educational institutions, healthcare systems, and society can shape how people understand their worth, safety, competence, and belonging. When these influences are overlooked, individuals may internalize struggles that are also connected to racism, sexism, ableism, marginalization, or chronic invalidation.
Dr. Bennett helps clients name and understand these experiences without assuming that insight alone can change the systems around them. Therapy creates space to acknowledge the impact of systemic barriers while also identifying areas where clients can strengthen boundaries, reclaim agency, deepen self-trust, and identify sources of connection and joy. .
Career Development, Burnout & Professional Growth
Dr. Bennett also enjoys working with adults who are questioning their career path, experiencing professional burnout, navigating workplace or academic stress, or seeking a greater sense of meaning and satisfaction in their work., Workplace dissatisfaction and difficulty navigating expectations are not always signs of personal inadequacy; they may also reflect organizational dysfunction, values conflicts, chronic overextension, discrimination, or limited support. Her work may include helping clients clarify professional values, explore career options, navigate workplace interpersonal dynamics, strengthen confidence, address perfectionism, prepare for leadership or advancement, and make thoughtful decisions about their future. She also supports individuals who are reconsidering their professional identity, adjusting to career transitions, or trying to build a work-life balance that feels more meaningful and sustainable.
Dr. Bennett is particularly interested in helping clients, across developmental stages, understand how trauma, neurodivergence, and identity may influence their work and career development experiences. Together, she and her clients identify both practical strategies for individual growth while addressing the impact of environmental factors.
Evidence-Based, Relational & Contextually Responsive Care
Dr. Bennett’s work is grounded in evidence-based therapy while remaining flexible and responsive to each client’s needs, identities, and lived experiences. She draws from cognitive-behavioral, acceptance-based, relational-cultural, mindfulness-based, and trauma-informed approaches.
She has a particular interest in Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation, or STAIR, a structured trauma treatment that helps clients strengthen emotional awareness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and self-compassion. STAIR can be especially helpful for individuals whose traumatic experiences have affected their relationships, sense of identity, or ability to feel safe and connected with others.
Dr. Bennett works collaboratively with clients to determine whether they would benefit from a more structured, skills-focused approach or a more exploratory and relational therapeutic process.
Across treatment approaches, she emphasizes that emotional reactions and coping patterns should be understood within the context in which they developed. Therapy involves honoring the strategies that helped clients survive while creating room for new responses that are more flexible, sustainable, and aligned with their current values.
Education & Experience
Dr. Bennett brings an interdisciplinary background that informs her holistic, systems-aware approach to therapy. She earned both her Bachelor of Arts in English and her Master of Health Science in Reproductive and Cancer Biology from Johns Hopkins University, where she developed an appreciation for the ways biological, medical, and social factors intersect to influence health and well-being. She later completed both a Master of Science in Education in Mental Health Counseling and her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Counseling Psychology at Fordham University, where her research focused on multicultural identity, career development, and the lived experiences of historically marginalized communities.
Dr. Bennett completed her doctoral internship at Johns Hopkins University, providing psychotherapy, crisis intervention, and outreach services to undergraduate and graduate students. She subsequently completed her postdoctoral fellowship at George Washington University, where she continued providing individual therapy, supervision, and identity-focused group interventions.
Since 2017, Dr. Bennett has served in progressively advancing clinical and leadership roles at Loyola University Maryland, where she has worked as a staff psychologist, Associate Director for Training, and leader of university-wide mental health, trauma-informed care, and wellness initiatives. In addition to providing psychotherapy, she has supervised graduate trainees, expanded multidisciplinary training programs, implemented campus-wide Mental Health First Aid, coordinated STAIR consultation and implementation, and co-led initiatives designed to improve mental health equity and support students from historically marginalized communities.
Throughout her career, Dr. Bennett has worked across university counseling centers, community mental health, career counseling, public health, and research settings. Her scholarship and professional presentations have focused on multicultural identity, social justice, career development, leadership, and equitable pathways to education and employment, reflecting her enduring interest in helping people understand themselves within the broader systems that shape their lives.
Her expertise in evidence-based and integrative approaches includes:
- Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Motivational Interviewing
- Mindfulness-Based Interventions
- Relational Therapy
- Trauma-Informed and Strengths-Based Care
- Culturally Responsive Therapy
Additional Trainings
Her clinical work integrates evidence-based care with a multicultural, relational, and trauma-informed perspective. She has advanced training in Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) and is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, bringing particular expertise in trauma-informed treatment, neurodivergent-affirming care, identity development, burnout, and career concerns.
Professional Memberships
Dr. Bennett maintains active membership in the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.