Allison (Ally) Emery
Graduate Associate
Supervised by Lauren Masciarelli, MA, LPC-S, LMFT-S
Ally is a Marriage and Family Counseling graduate student with a background in psychology and a commitment to supporting children, adolescents, and families. She earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology, with a minor in Child, Youth, and Family Studies, from the Honors College at Portland State University. Her academic and professional experiences have centered around understanding development, relationships, and the ways our environments shape who we become.
Ally has had the privilege of working in various nonprofit and mental health settings, including working in education where she supported youth through social-emotional programming and mentorship. She also facilitated bereavement groups for adolescents at The Dougy Center, a nonprofit serving young people navigating grief and loss. These experiences continue to shape her belief in the importance of creating safe, attuned spaces where individuals and families feel seen, supported, and empowered.
Ally’s clinical interests include working with trauma, grief and loss, foster, adoption, and caregiver dynamics, and the complexities of family systems. She is particularly drawn to approaches that honor both the science of the brain and the lived experience of clients, including Interpersonal Neurobiology, Person-Centered Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and somatic and experiential therapies. Ally values a collaborative, strengths-based approach that meets clients where they are, while gently supporting growth, healing, and meaningful change.
Ally aims to bring warmth, curiosity, and authenticity into the therapy room. Her goal is to create a space where clients feel safe to explore their experiences, and deepen their understanding of themselves, their relationships, and the lives they want to live. When she is not in the classroom or the therapy room, she enjoys oil painting, swimming, reading, and spending time with her husband and pets.
