Diane Hughes is a licensed clinical social worker who has provided psychotherapy for patients since 1981. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology with a focus on how emotional issues are usually developed by early childhood experiences and on the importance of the client-therapist relationship in psychotherapy.
She has worked with police as a mental health first-responder, was on staff in student mental health at Georgia State University and has brought her skills to those with alternative lifestyles in the community through workshops and conferences such as the 2010 Sexually in the South.
In her private practice, she centers a caring patient-therapist relationship and provides a safe environment for exploring the emotional roots of behavior. She has developed an expertise with LGBTQIA+ people, polyamorous relationships, kink, pagan, and other alternative lifestyles. She also has many clients in higher education and helps with the challenges specific to an academic setting.
In her practice she focuses on the following psychotherapeutic interventions:
- Interpersonal Therapy
- Family Systems Theory
- Object Relations Theory (Self-concept as developed through family dynamics)
- Attachment Theory
- Psychoanalytic Relational Approach
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy