Christie Eastman is a Master Accelerated Resolution Therapist, ICEEFT Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor.

Christie completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1989 and her Masters of Counseling from Marshall University in 2004.

In her first 16 years working in the field, Christie always felt that there was something missing in her work with clients living with trauma.  Although her clients’ lives were being changed, there was often a bedrock of trauma that was never fully broken through, even after years of intensive treatment.  The death by suicide of a precious client with complex trauma in 2019 led Christie to vow to herself that she find and get training that would heal the trauma that was so prevalent in the clients she serves.   When she discovered ART through an ART-trained co-worker, she hoped that it would be the missing piece in her therapeutic skillset.  It was.

Christie took her basic training in ART in 2020 and has since been on a mission to bring this treatment to other therapists in her region of the world (Appalachia).   In addition to ART, Christie has trained and worked as an Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor, serving couples, families, and other therapists to promote emotional safety and connection in primary relationships in people’s lives.  Christie has also worked to integrate her faith with her work in a variety of ways whether implicitly in terms of values and compassion for the human condition, or explicitly for clients for whom having a faith-based counselor is important in their process.

Other formative experiences that make ART deeply and personally relevant in Christie’s life include her years working internationally in East Africa and South Asia.  There she lived with people who demonstrated an extraordinary resilience in the face of tribal warfare, banditry, famine, debilitating disease, and devastating poverty.  These remarkable people deepened her commitment to spend her life in the service of those who endure more than most.
christie.eastman@chhi.org