Therapy Group of Charlotte
Dr. Colton Brown, Ph.D.
Dignity, honesty & a little laughter along the way
About Dr. Brown
Most people who find their way to me are tired of holding something on their own — grief that hasn’t had anywhere to go, anxiety that’s become the background noise of the week, or the particular exhaustion of moving through spaces that weren’t built with you in mind. I’d like therapy to be the place you get to set that down and look at it honestly.
I take the work seriously and I don’t think that requires taking ourselves too seriously. Some of the most useful moments I’ve had with clients came right after we laughed about something — because laughing together means you’ve stopped performing, and once you’ve stopped performing we can actually get somewhere.
“Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, including by themselves. A lot of therapy is just learning to extend to yourself the patience you’d give anyone else without thinking about it.”
Colton Brown, Ph.D., Therapist Charlotte
My Approach
I work relationally, which means the relationship between us is not the setup for the work — it is a lot of the work. How you and I get along, where you hesitate, what you find yourself protecting: those things tend to mirror what happens outside this room, and noticing them together is often where change starts. Alongside that we work on the practical side — what to actually do when feelings arrive faster than you can think them through — and I draw on positive psychology, which is less about optimism than about paying real attention to what already works in your life rather than only cataloguing what doesn’t.
In sessions I lean toward exploration over structure, and I’ll push a little more than you might expect. I’m not interested in being the therapist who nods for fifty minutes. I’ll ask the question you were hoping to skip, and I’ll do it warmly, and then we’ll sit with the answer together.
Interested in working with Dr. Brown?
Take the first step — we’ll help you get started.
A lot of my work is with people navigating identity, culture, and belonging — including LGBTQIA+ clients who have spent a long time managing how much of themselves is safe to show in a given room. I’ve given a lot of my time to LGBTQIA+ organisations outside of my practice, and I’ve held leadership roles with the Society of Counseling Psychology, where the strengths-based tradition I trained in takes seriously that people are more than their worst season. Grief is the other thread that runs through my caseload — the kind that arrives on schedule and the kind that shows up years late.
If you want a therapist who will be straight with you, who will treat where you are now as a reasonable place to be standing, and who believes there’s a healthier place available to you — that’s the work I want to do.
Educational Background
Common Questions
I’ll want to know what’s going on, but mostly I want to know what it’s been like for you — those aren’t always the same story. I’m not going to run you through an intake form and call it a conversation. Somewhere in there I’d like you to feel comfortable enough to be a person rather than a patient, because that’s the point at which this starts working. If something’s funny, laugh. It won’t offend me.
It means we pay attention to what happens between us as it happens. If you find yourself smoothing something over with me, or checking whether I’m annoyed, or holding back the real version of an answer — that’s not a distraction from the work, it’s live material. Most of us learned how to be in relationships long before we could think about it. Noticing those habits with someone who’s paying attention is usually faster than analysing them alone.
Yes, and it’s a significant part of my practice rather than a line on a list. I’ve given a lot of time to LGBTQIA+ organisations outside of my clinical work. Practically that means you don’t have to educate me before we start, and you don’t have to decide how much context to give before you can say the actual thing. It also means I won’t assume your identity is what you came in about — sometimes it is, often it isn’t.
I work entirely online with clients across North Carolina, over secure video. That means the right fit matters more than the drive, and sessions fit into a real schedule rather than requiring you to build an afternoon around one. Plenty of people find they’re more honest from their own space than from a waiting room.
Ready — or still deciding?
Either way, we’ll make it easy. Get started with Dr. Brown directly, or tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll connect you with the right therapist. Takes a few minutes — no commitment.
Transparent Pricing & Insurance Support
Life in DC can be complicated. Insurance paperwork shouldn’t be. We handle the paperwork to make reimbursement simple.