Alessia Fontenette Madkins

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right sprit within me" Psalm 51:10

Welcome to your story of renewal, healing, and hope. Renewal springs forth from the seed of hope. There is hope, even if you can’t see a way forward right now. Beginning the journey of therapy can feel overwhelming and scary. As I journey alongside you in creating your story, I can assure you of one thing, no two people are the same. God made you exactly the way He wanted you to be. You are unique and designed to bring Him glory in a way that no one else can. At my age, there are a few things I’m certain about. Feeling whole and fulfilled is possible at any age and any stage of life.

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Every relationship begins with a connection. Therefore, I strive to build a healthy therapeutic alliance and successful outcome with each client. Providing therapy from a Christ-centered, Biblical frame of reference, and clinically informed approach. I bring my natural warmth, calmness and compassion to every session so that my clients feel at ease as the Holy Spirit guides us both through tough situations. I like to help my clients see for themselves what they are experiencing—then we collaborate together to find solutions and insights that will bring healing and transformation. I also consider it a privilege to provide and serve those seeking therapy who are not Christians with excellent clinical services tailored to addressing the whole person not only by resolving your struggles, but more importantly, by growing as a person as a result of your struggles. 

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Healing, Growth, and Renewal After Betrayal

If you’ve faced betrayal in your marriage or long-term relationship, you know the devastation that broken trust creates. Trust requires safety, and if your perception of reality is influenced by the lies or insincerity of another person, it becomes unsafe. There are so many painful words that flood our minds following betrayal: In spite of those words being painful, there are three words that cut to the core of the betrayal, “‘I’M NOT ENOUGH.” This continues to be the mindset, set on repeat. After any type of trauma whether it’s from combat to car accidents, natural disasters to domestic violence, sexual assault to child abuse, the brain and body change. Every cell records memories and every embedded, trauma-related neuropathway has the opportunity to repeatedly reactivate. Let me put your mind at ease, You’re not crazy. You have experienced trauma, and you can heal. I know firsthand how it feels to empower yourself after loss, abuse, and trauma. Learning how to move forward after betrayal is difficult to do alone. God has an unbelievable way of bringing restoration and grounding who we are in Him, not realizing that our most excruciating experiences can be the catalyst to our greatest growth in the Lord and eventually, our realest joy. That’s why I’m here – to offer the education, support, resources, and connection you need to find healing, hope and renewal from a partner’s betrayal. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 

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Blending and Creating Harmony

My other passion is working with families that are blended by marriage. Blending families is a labor of love, and patience, and perseverance. Blending in ways that honors God’s plan for a healthy marriage and children is not easy. We all know that parenting is never easy, but the challenges that blended families face are altogether different from the challenging dynamics not normally seen in the traditional family unit. The reason for blended families comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and circumstances. Whether it should be suddenly, that person is gone or maybe your spouse was taken from you, through illness or accident; or maybe the person you loved the most chose to leave you, or you had to leave him/her. Either way, you’re left without a partner with whom to navigate life, raise your children, do things with; you’re alone. Does this sound familiar? Well, it was my story over 29 years ago, in many of your circumstances, you can relate to this description, or something similar. Again, I am also aware of this firsthand for over 27 years. After years of marital, family, individual and play therapy for the kids, I can attest to one thing, blended family counseling is a necessary tool for modern day families, counseling was quite literally a Godsend for my husband and me as we learned how to navigate a blended life. I love working with blended families because making a few important changes in the family system can have huge rewards for the family.

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Education and Background

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor in the state of Texas, Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Counseling from Liberty University. I also hold a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Sam Houston State University. I am a Certified Clinical Partner Specialist (CCPS) through APSATS (The Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists) and have specialized training in counseling the spouses, partners, or ex-spouses of sex addicts. I have training in the two modalities for treating trauma: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and ImTT (Image Transformation Therapy) essential therapy methods for people struggling with addiction, intimacy disorders, childhood and betrayal trauma or severe PTSD. I also draw perspective from leading evidence-based interventions from Sue Johnson’s Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and John Gottman’s Sound Relationship House. I am a trainer and facilitator for The Prepare/Enrich and facilitator for SYMBIS (Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts).