THERAPY IN BIRMINGHAM, AL
About Empower Counseling
Built for Every Season. Here for Every Stage of Your Life.
Empower Counseling exists for one reason: so that no woman in Birmingham — and no woman in Alabama — ever has to face a hard season alone, or start over with a new practice every time her life changes. From the teenage years through every chapter of adulthood, there is a therapist here who understands exactly where you are.
How We Started
Kathryn Ely Was a High-Achieving Woman Who Still Felt Like She Was Falling Short. She Found the Way Out. Then She Built a Practice Around It.
Empower Counseling was founded by Kathryn Ely — a former practicing attorney, a mother of three, and a woman who spent years living inside the exact struggle she now helps women leave behind. She knew what it was to accomplish everything she set out to accomplish and still lie awake feeling like it wasn't enough. She knew what it was to be capable, driven, and quietly exhausted in a way she couldn't fully explain to anyone around her.
She found Acceptance Commitment Therapy while earning her master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling — and it changed everything. Not because it silenced the self-doubt or removed the hard parts, but because it gave her a different relationship with all of it. A way to stop being controlled by the fear and start moving, with intention, toward what actually mattered. She built Empower so that every woman who walks through the door can find the same thing.
"The right therapy doesn't just reduce suffering. It builds a life worth living."
That conviction has shaped every hire, every clinical decision, and every session at Empower since the day it opened. It is why every therapist on this team is a woman. It is why every therapist on this team is trained in methods that are scientifically proven to work. And it is why this practice was built around the full arc of a woman's life, not just one chapter of it.
MEET OUR SYMBOL
Courageous the Lioness
She has been part of Empower from the beginning. We just made her official — because she has always stood for exactly what we do here.
Most of us have been waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting to feel confident enough, certain enough, healed enough before we make a move toward the life we actually want. We tell ourselves: once I feel better about myself, then I will do the thing. Then I will ask for what I need. Then I will start. But confidence is not what comes first.
Clarity is. And courage follows clarity — not the other way around.
This is what ACT teaches, and what Courageous embodies. You do not need to feel like enough before you begin. You need to know what matters to you — what you want the next chapter of your life to look and feel like — and then find the courage to take one honest step in that direction. The confidence builds on the path. It does not arrive before it.
Courageous also stands for something else — something just as important, and just as hard for many of the women who come to us. A pride that has nothing to do with arrogance, and everything to do with worth.
A lioness knows what she is. Not because every day is easy or every season is kind — but because her sense of herself does not depend on any of that. She does not shrink. She does not wait for permission to take up space. She does not measure her worth by what she has accomplished or what anyone else thinks of her. She simply knows.
So many of the women who walk through our doors have spent years — sometimes decades — living with a quiet, relentless voice that says you are not enough. Not enough accomplished. Not enough together. Not enough to deserve the kind of life you actually want. Courageous is a daily reminder that the opposite of that voice is not perfection. It is an unshakeable, unwavering knowledge of your own worth. We believe every woman who comes to Empower can get there. Our job is to help her find her way to knowing her worth — the worth that has been there all along.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
We Lead With Our Values.
The Same Ones We Help Our Clients Find Their Way Back To.
At Empower, we practice what we teach. ACT — Acceptance Commitment Therapy — asks people to identify what matters most and move toward it, even when fear and self-doubt are present. Courageous reminds us daily to do the same. These are the values that guide how we practice, how we show up, and how we care for every woman who trusts us with her story.
Courage
Real change requires moving toward what matters — even when fear is loud. We ask it of our clients, and Courageous reminds us to hold ourselves to the same standard. Courage is not the absence of anxiety. It is the decision to act anyway.
Compassion
We meet every woman exactly where she is — without judgment, without rushing her forward before she is ready, and without making her feel like she has to earn the right to be here. The same warmth and self-compassion we help clients build, we extend to them from the first session.
Honesty
We do not offer empty reassurance. We will tell you the truth about what we see, celebrate what is genuinely working, and name what is not. ACT is built on seeing clearly — and so are we. You deserve a therapist who is honest with you, not one who simply makes you feel comfortable.
Presence
Good therapy happens when a therapist is fully here — not moving on before you are ready, not glancing ahead to the next question. We bring our full attention to every session because your story deserves to be heard completely, not just efficiently.
Values-led care
We do not decide what your life should look like. Our job is to help you get clear on what matters most to you — and then help you build a path toward it. The direction is always yours. We help you see it more clearly and move toward it with less fear in the way.
Growth without perfection
We do not expect perfection from our clients — and we do not expect it from ourselves. We pursue the highest clinical standards because you deserve care that actually works. But we hold that pursuit with openness, not rigidity. We keep learning because you deserve better every time.
HOW WE PRACTICE
Evidence-Based Therapy Only.
Because You Deserve More Than Talking in Circles.
Not all therapy is the same. There is a meaningful difference between a method that has been rigorously studied and proven to work — and one that simply feels supportive. At Empower, we only use approaches in the first category. Our foundation is Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), an advanced evidence-based method that does more than reduce symptoms. It builds a life.
Each therapist on this team has pursued specialized training well above her master's level education — because the women we serve deserve someone who has gone deep into the specific territory they are navigating, not a generalist who has seen a lot of people.
Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Our clinical foundation • Learn More →
EMDR
Trauma processing • Learn More →
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Parts-based healing • Learn More →
Prepare & Enrich
Pre-marital & couples • Learn More →
Perinatal Mental Health
Specialized PMAD care • Learn More →
Eating Disorder Treatment
Residential through outpatient • Learn More →
What we are built for
One Practice. Every Season of a Woman's Life.
Most practices are built around whatever their therapists happen to specialize in. Empower was built differently — around the full arc of a woman's life, and the conviction that you should never have to start over with a new practice just because your chapter changed.
We see teenagers and the parents navigating alongside them. We see college students who look like they have it together and feel like they are unraveling. We see women in their twenties and thirties who have hit every goal and found them hollow. We see mothers navigating infertility, pregnancy loss, and the identity shift no one fully prepares you for. We see professionals who run rooms full of people and lie awake wondering if they belong. And we see women at every stage of life who are simply carrying something they have been carrying alone for too long.
Whatever season you are in, there is a therapist on this team who understands it. And if your needs change, there is someone on this team for the next chapter too. You never have to start over.
Courageous is waiting.
So are we.
Whatever you are carrying right now — there is a therapist at Empower who understands it. A free consultation is simply a conversation. You do not need the right words. You just have to show up.