Kim Skelton, LCMHCS, LCAS

At the heart of Kim Skelton’s work is a deep commitment to compassionate connection, healing, and lasting transformation. As a queer therapist, clinical supervisor, and founder of Widening Circles, she is dedicated to creating and developing accessible, integrative mental health care that supports psychospiritual growth, recovery, and wellbeing.

Kim’s treatment approach honors the natural cycles of disintegration and renewal, offering individuals support through profound periods of challenge. Rooted in deep compassion, she holds space for both the breaking apart and the alchemical re-emergence of wholeness, allowing healing to unfold with care and authenticity. Her work is grounded in humanistic and existential psychotherapy, psychedelic-assisted therapy, harm reduction principles, feminist psychotherapy, ecopsychology, and EMDR. She is particularly passionate about working at the intersection of trauma, grief, problematic substance use, mood and anxiety disorders, LGBTQ+ issues, and spirituality.

With over 20 years of experience, Kim has worked in diverse clinical settings, including private practice, community mental health, school-based programs, an opioid use disorder clinic, higher education, and a domestic violence shelter. In 2013, she co-founded Willow Wellness and Recovery, a mindfulness-based opioid use disorder program, where she served as Clinical Director until 2019.

Kim is trained in MDMA-assisted therapy through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and has served as a co-therapist in the FDA Expanded Access Program for MDMA-assisted therapy through Lykos Therapeutics and Pearl Psychedelic Institute.  She has also served as a KAP educator at Pearl Psychedelic Institute.  Additionally, she has trained in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) through the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI) and has advanced training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP).

Kim’s commitment to integrative healing extends beyond traditional psychotherapy. She has studied community herbalism through HERBalachia and Chinese stone and crystal medicine through Upper Clarity School of Stone Medicine, deepening her understanding of holistic and nature-based healing practices. Outside of her work, Kim finds joy immersing herself in the natural beauty of Western North Carolina with her family and dogs, and enjoys playing with watercolor, gardening, and paddling down the river.