Meet Sharmen

Sharmen Kimbrough, MA

Sharmen emphasizes navigating life and relationships from a Christ-centered perspective. She brings a strong sense of optimism to the table and can often reframe issues in a way that brings insight and motivation to change.

She loves speaking hope into complicated situations and watching people grab hold of that hope to find the sense of life, freedom and joy they’ve been craving.

specialties

pairs well with

services offered

mission statement

To speak practical truth into dark places so people can apply it to their own hearts, story, and relational shenanigans.

approach

A core part of Sharmen’s approach to her work is based upon the belief that we are created to be connected, and that attachment dysfunction is the basis of all soul-level trauma.

Attachment dysfunction looks like shame, fear, neglect, abandonment, rejection and deception. When we live in hiding, we cannot attach. Sharmen works primarily with adults who are struggling to come out of hiding, isolation, and self-protection, and helps them build a path toward authentic living which translates to authentic relationships and deeper connections. Whether the “hiding” looks like narcissism or codependency, she helps untangle the lies, the nonsense, and what trauma has done to your soul and ability to attach within relationships.

A lot of her approach looks like parts work based on the style of Internal Family Systems. As a whole, every single person is born into this life a totally codependent narcissistic little monster. We come through childhood tending toward one end of that spectrum or the other based on our experience of our core relationships. In adulthood, we act out all the same self-protective coping mechanisms we learned, only as adults those coping skills are maladaptive in actually creating the freedom and aliveness we crave. Sharmen looks at the practical, pragmatic, and constructive ways to better understand and unfurl the parts that are negatively undermining interpersonal connection. Ultimately, it boils down to the soul-level, spiritual consideration of to whom does the heart look for purpose, meaning, security, and life — self or God. The fruit of recovery looks like coming out of hiding, living authentically, with freedom, aliveness and mutuality in your interpersonal relationships.

She is gifted at working with men and women individually, as couples, and within group settings.

education & experience

Sharmen received her master’s degree in professional counseling in 2012 from Liberty University. Part of her training included peer counseling at a Pregnancy Care Center (two years), an internship at an inpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment center (Walter B. Jones ADATC, one year), and extensive volunteering with teens and mentoring groups (since 1995). She opened her own coaching practice in 2012. Alongside maintaining her own practice, Sharmen is also an integral part of the Marriage Recovery Center with Dr. David Hawkins, based in the Seattle, WA area.

The backbone of her work has been built upon experience more so than book learning. She has experienced a lifetime of learning how to navigate dysfunctional, destructive behavior and emotional abuse, as well as divorce and single-parenting. The adversity of her own life has uniquely prepared her to speak wisdom into the lives of those around her. If you would like, you can read more of Sharmen’s testimony here.