Meet Patricia Clark, LPC

Patricia Clark, LPC, Doctoral Candidate, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, EMDR-trained therapist, researcher, speaker, and founder of D.I.V.A. Counseling & Consulting.

For more than a decade, Patricia has walked alongside individuals, couples, and families carrying the weight of experiences that were painful but not always recognized as trauma. Again and again, she encountered women who were capable, responsible, accomplished, and deeply committed to others yet privately felt emotionally exhausted, disconnected, silenced, or unsure of who they had become.

Their experiences did not always begin with one defining event. Instead, the impact appeared to accumulate through repeated moments of dismissal, unmet emotional needs, relational imbalance, cultural pressure, over-responsibility, and the expectation to remain strong.

That pattern became the foundation of Patricia's emerging work on cumulative relational microtrauma.

 Patricia is currently conducting doctoral research related to the lived experiences of African American professional women. Her work explores how subtle, repeated relational stressors may influence identity, meaning-making, emotional well-being, and relationships with oneself and others.

She approaches this work with humility and care. Cumulative relational microtrauma is presented as an emerging conceptual framework, not as a diagnosis or established clinical theory. Her goal is to expand the conversation, invite thoughtful research, and provide language that helps people recognize experiences that may otherwise be minimized or overlooked.

Through D.I.V.A. (Developing Insight, Vision, and Authority), Patricia helps people move from simply surviving their experiences toward understanding their patterns, reconnecting with their vision, and reclaiming the authority to make choices that reflect who they are becoming.

· Insight: Recognizing the experiences, messages, protective patterns, and emotional responses shaping the present.

· Vision: Reconnecting with identity, values, needs, purpose, and the life or relationships a person wants to create.

· Authority: Strengthening voice, boundaries, agency, and the capacity to choose from self-trust rather than fear or obligation.

 · Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia

· Certified Clinical Trauma Professional

· EMDR-trained therapist

· Doctoral Candidate in Community Care and Counseling: Traumatology

· Founder, D.I.V.A. Counseling & Consulting

· More than a decade of experience serving individuals, couples, and families