About Me
☎ (206) 486 - 0295
✉ kelly@crescentwellnessinc.com
Kelly Druin, LICSW
How I Got Here
My first job in this field was on an inpatient trauma unit. There was a quote hanging on the wall that I read almost every day:
"They are survivors. If you don't have respect for their strength you can't be of any help. It's a privilege that they let you in, there's no reason they should trust you, none. You can't know their terror. It's your worst nightmare come true, a nightmare from which you can never awaken. It's unrelenting. There has been no safety: no one, no time, no thing, all was tainted. Hope was obliterated, time and time again. That they are in our office is in itself a supreme act of valor."
*Author unknown*
This quote shaped how I understood my role from the very beginning: that being trusted with someone's pain is not something you're owed, it's something you earn, and something you never stop being humbled by.
A year later, Hurricane Katrina hit. I was living just outside of New Orleans, supposed to be starting graduate school that fall. Instead, I evacuated with everyone else and watched my beloved city flood and fracture, watched people lose their homes, their loved ones, and their sense that the world was safe or predictable.
Not long after, I got the chance to work with individuals and families affected by Katrina, helping them navigate the kind of loss most people only fear in the abstract. And in the middle of all that devastation, I kept noticing something remarkable: people's resilience. Not only were they able to stay standing in the face of almost unbearable loss, many of them turned around and helped the person standing next to them. It changed how I understood what people are capable of, and it told me I was in the right field.
Katrina taught me that mindfulness, compassion, and meeting life honestly, even when it's not going the way you planned, aren't just nice ideas. They're survival skills. The only way out of suffering is to go right through it.
I'm not going to tell you every hard thing turns into a silver lining, because that's not true. What I do believe is that even in the middle of real limitations, you still have choices, and reconnecting with what actually matters to you is where things start to shift.
Your circumstances probably don't look like a hurricane, but loss and change find all of us eventually. Having someone you trust in your corner makes a real difference. Talking about what you're carrying doesn't make it disappear, but it does mean you're not carrying it alone. That's what I'm here for.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anais Nin
Training & Experience
Licensed Independent Social Worker (LICSW)
Master of Social Work degree from Tulane University with a focus on clinical and community social work
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of New Orleans
Certified in Traumatic Stress Studies from the Trauma Center at JRI
EMDR Basic Training, EMDR Institute
EMDR Advanced Training in Attachment Focused EMDR
EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist