Heidi McKinley, LPC

My story

A different kind of path to this work.

Before I became a therapist, I worked as a hairstylist, a writer, a bartender, and a teacher. I earned my MFA in Creative Nonfiction and spent years helping others understand themselves through story. That love for narrative — especially the hidden, emotional kind — led me to therapy.

What drew me in more deeply was my own healing, which is ongoing, as all real healing is. I found myself caught in patterns I couldn't logic my way out of. Internal Family Systems helped me stop trying to fix myself and start listening to the parts of me that had never felt fully seen. That's what I help others do now.

I work best with people who are curious about their inner worlds yet feel stuck in old relational patterns or disconnected from their own inner wisdom.

Many of the people I work with carry attachment wounds, self-doubt, or burnout from trying to be everything to everyone. I also have a particular passion for helping people with religious trauma reconnect to spirituality on their own terms.