Elinor Priest, MA, LCMHC, NCC
Lead Therapist at Evoke Therapy Intensives
Elinor’s calm and inviting demeanor balances with her boundless energy as she aligns with her clients to collaborate on lowering defenses and exploring their underlying wounds. Elinor’s curious, strength-based, and individualized approach allows her to build strong relationships with the people she works with and create safety for them to step into their discomfort instead of avoiding it.
Education & Prior Work Experience
Immersed in the Evoke clinical model since 2016, Elinor has spent over a half a decade working with complex family systems, trauma, and attachment related issues. She has honed her ability to create strong relationships with her clients and support them in discovering and communicating their truth. Elinor graduated from Northern Arizona University with a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, with experience working with both adolescents and adults in individual and group settings. Elinor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in both Psychology and English from Northern Arizona University. Her undergraduate work in English feeds Elinor’s belief that one access point to unconscious beliefs about one’s emotional world is the manner in which we express ourselves verbally. Elinor finds it meaningful to highlight these subtle patterns both in her coaching sessions and within the experiential process of Intensives.
Elinor completed a clinical internship at Northern Arizona University working with college students who were struggling with the myriad of issues that come along with emerging adulthood. She also spent two years working with NAU’s substance abuse program utilizing motivational interviewing techniques while working with mandated clients. Both before and after earning her master’s degree, Elinor worked in direct care with wilderness therapy clients. Elinor’s experience as a wilderness therapist and guide offered continued opportunities to explore herself, lean into discomfort and build resilience, balance playfulness and processing, and hone therapeutic techniques that would supplement her experiential approach in working with future clients.
Strengths
Elinor’s clinical approach facilitates the resilience and empowerment that clients are eager for. She believes finding new ways to sit with and move through emotions allows her clients to feel safe to look within themselves and create new understanding of life challenges. As a varsity D1 collegiate soccer player, Elinor has been on teams for much of her life and knows the importance of a strong team. As such, she excels at processing group dynamics and creating a sense of meaning and purpose within a shared experience.
Interests
Elinor is the youngest of four and grew up in Portland, Oregon. After discovering that the sun shines daily elsewhere, she moved to the Southwest and has lived here since 2011. Outside of work Elinor loves to spend time being active and endorphin-seeking with her partner and their dogs by backpacking, exploring the outdoors, and has recently begun dabbling in mountain biking. She values moments of genuine connection and spends much of her time with the strong community she’s built around her. Elinor enjoys quiet mornings drinking coffee, cooking with loved ones, walking her dogs, finding any and all opportunities to be competitive, and fuels many of her days with her lifelong passion for bread.