I come to this work not just as a therapist — but as someone who has walked through her own grief, loss, and uncertainty.
I've navigated the loss of my husband, years of unexplained illness, and the kind of uncertainty that changes how you see everything. I know what it feels like to keep going when the ground has shifted beneath you — and to find myself asking: what can I learn from this? It's the question that led me toward healing. And it's the same question I bring into the therapy room every day.
I'm a licensed professional counselor in Texas — attachment focused, EMDR trained, and certified in the treatment of trauma. I also bring advanced training in anxiety and grief to everything we do together. I work with warmth, humor, and deep respect for the courage it takes to look honestly at yourself. My goal is never to fix you. You're not broken. I'm here to help you understand yourself, heal what isn't working, and begin to see yourself with the same compassion you give to everyone else.
You deserve that. And I'd be honored to help you find it.
Hi, I’m Cherilyn Schutze.
Member of the Texas Counseling Association.
My Story
Many of the women I work with tell me that my personal experience is part of what drew them to me. Knowing your therapist has walked through loss, grief, and the kind of uncertainty that changes everything can create a different kind of connection. Not better, necessarily. Just different.
But I also believe everyone's journey is their own. What I bring isn't "I know exactly how you feel." It's something quieter — a deep sense of recognition, and a genuine belief that the path through is possible because I found mine.
I was married to my high school sweetheart for 29 years. In 2013, he passed away from cancer — and overnight I went from wife, mother, and caretaker to a widowed mother. I had to find a way to support myself and my youngest daughter, while helping four daughters find their way through their own grief.
Two years later, while working as a crisis counselor for a large hospital group in Dallas, I contracted a rare, serious lung infection. What followed were years of health issues doctors struggled to diagnose or treat — financial and physical uncertainty, and the particular exhaustion of being unwell in ways that are hard to explain to the people around you.
Through all of it I kept going, putting one cement shoe in front of the other. Sometimes one day at a time. Sometimes one minute at a time.
My faith, and nearly twenty years of walking alongside my husband through rare chronic illness and his eventual cancer diagnosis, gave me a place to look. The question "what can I learn from this?" became my anchor. Some days it held me. Some days I had to fight to find it. And now it's at the heart of everything I do — helping the women I work with find their own anchor in the middle of whatever they're carrying.
Healing is possible — not because I read about it, but because I lived it. That's why I do this work.
My Approach
You are the expert on you. This the foundation of everything we do together.
I'm not here to fix you. You're not broken. I'm here to help you understand where your patterns came from: the childhood attachment wounds, the relationship issues, the people-pleasing and codependency that have kept you stuck. Together we work to let go of the negative beliefs that have defined you for too long, because those beliefs are not the truth of you. You will develop new ways of thinking, coping, and communicating that help you move forward in a way that finally honors who you are.
We work together with warmth, compassion, and even humor, because sometimes laughter is exactly what's needed in the middle of hard work. My goal is for you to feel safe, seen, and completely yourself from the very first conversation.
I believe therapy should teach you something beyond feeling better in the moment. It should help you actually understand yourself, why you think the way you think, why you've lived the way you've lived, and why certain patterns keep showing up no matter how hard you try to change them.
Most of the women I work with are their own worst critic. They hold themselves to a standard they would never hold anyone else to. When I suggest they treat themselves the way they treat others, with the same kindness, the same patience, and the same compassion, it often stops them cold. That moment of recognition is where the real work begins.
My hope is for you to leave every session with a little more understanding, a little more compassion toward yourself, and a genuine sense that things can be different, because they can.
My Experience
My background includes clinical work across a range of settings, from emergency rooms, inpatient units, and ICUs for patients in psychiatric crisis, to private practice. Before focusing exclusively on telehealth, I worked as a crisis counselor for a large hospital group in Dallas, an experience that shaped both my clinical skills and my deep respect for the courage it takes to ask for help.
I'm attachment focused, EMDR trained, and a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. I also bring advanced training in anxiety and grief to everything we do together, including David Kessler's model for grief, one of the most respected and compassionate frameworks for understanding loss.
I received my BA in Psychology and English from The University of Texas and my Master's in Counseling from The University of North Texas.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
— Dr. Wayne Dyer
I would be honored to work with you to help you find new ways to look at your struggles and gain the skills necessary to make changes to become a happier, healthier you! Give me a call and let's start your journey.
