Capable Counseling NC, PLLC

Elizabeth Harris is a mental health practitioner and an artist. Born to an immigrant Jamaican family and raised on Long Island, Elizabeth graduated from the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, PA; earned a BFA in theatre arts from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, an MFA in Acting from Columbia University, MA in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Colorado-Denver, a North Carolina based Licensed Mental Health Counseling Associate (A21094); and is a founding member of the Progress Theatre Company. Elizabeth served with Seeds for Hope in the slums of Kibera in Kenya where she created a dramatic presentation to empower girls beyond stereotypes. This work constituted a turning point for Elizabeth. In Kenya, after years of participating in performance groups, Elizabeth witnessed the therapeutic powers theatre can unleash in a community. As a therapist who is also an artist, Elizabeth believes that using the arts in a safe therapeutic space allows people of all ages to express and process their stories. Because words can sometimes be limiting and intimidating, Elizabeth works with clients to draw and paint, creatively write, use gestures, create human sculptures, role play, create puppets, etc., thereby allowing an individual to express their world the way they see it, feel it, hear it, or smell it. Elizabeth's call on individuals to use their full bodies to express themselves can release cognitive stuck points and establish new neuropathways of engagement with the self and the world at large. Elizabeth believes that sometimes, seeing a story helps us to see ourselves. Before completing a mental health counseling degree program at the University of Colorado-Denver, Elizabeth completed a Master’s thesis that centered on theatre as a therapeutic pathway to self-revelation and healing with an emphasis on community witnessing. As Elizabeth works toward her registry in Drama Therapy through the North American Drama Therapy Association, she is excited to raise her two daughters alongside her husband in Charlotte, North Carolina.