OUR COUNSELORS
All of the counselors who serve with Bridgehaven are evangelical Christians, all are active church-members in a variety of churches, and all hold to a philosophy of counseling that is consistent with Bridgehaven’s statement of faith (taken from the Biblical Counseling Coalition).
While all of our counselors have similar graduate degrees and clinical training, each of our counselors have individual interests and specialized training to meet the particular needs of various clients. Additionally, most of our counselors have chosen to serve as non-licensed counselors on the ecclesiastical side of the separation of church and state in order to allow greater freedom for working with local churches. As such, most of our counselors do not currently hold state licensure.
Tony Higgins, MA, MA, PhD
Executive Director and Biblical Counselor
Tony provides comprehensive, clinically-informed, biblical counseling and therapy to individuals, couples, and families. His specific approach is to create a safe environment in which to help you explore how the combination of physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual factors may be related to the specific challenges you, your children, and your family are currently facing.
Prior to coming to Bridgehaven, Tony served more than 20 years as a pastor, a church planter, and as a university professor and administrator. Tony holds a Masters in Christian Marriage, Family, and Individual Counseling, a Masters in Christian Education, and a Ph.D. in Leadership in Christian Higher Education. Tony is also a certified facilitator of Prepare-Enrich, the number one premarital and marriage assessment for over 35 years.
Tony’s clinical training includes school-based counseling with elementary-aged children, working with adolescents and troubled-teens who have been removed from parental-custody, counseling college and graduate students navigating the transition to and through early-adulthood, and working with prospective, newly, and long-term married couples in various stages of health.
Tony’s experience and passion includes walking with those who have experienced physical, emotional, substance, or sexual abuse; relational abandonment; homelessness; fatherlessness; father-wounded-ness; difficulties managing emotions; depression; and divorce, especially children of divorce.
When not counseling, Tony enjoys reading, cooking, working out, and watching SEC football (Go Dawgs!)
Email: thiggins@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Omar King, M.Div
Biblical Counselor
Omar (age 43) is a native of Queens, NY and relocated to Raleigh, NC as a teenager where his home has been since. In 1999 he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his Master’s of Divinity with Biblical Counseling degree in 2010 from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Wake Forest NC. Omar is currently pursuing his Doctor of Education in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been a staff counselor at Bridgehaven since its inception in 2012. He is also an ordained pastor and has been a member of the Summit Church in Raleigh, NC since 2009. Omar has extensive counseling experience working with individuals and couples. Omar also sits on the board for Called to Peace Ministries a non-profit Christian organization dedicated to providing help, healing, and hope to victims of domestic abuse and equipping churches to understand and serve domestic abuse victims. Omar enjoys counseling on a range of issues including marriage, pre-marriage, dating, depression, anger, anxiety, identity, and security issues, and has a heart specifically for broken relationships and dysfunctional relationships to see them healed, restored, and made healthy. Omar enjoys reading, playing table tennis, exercising, and mixed martial arts. Omar and his wife LaToya of 14 years live in Wake Forest, NC.
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- For a listing of articles by Omar King, <click here >.
Email: oking@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Keith Clement, M.Ed
Biblical Counselor
Keith graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and received his graduate counseling training at Georgia State University and the Psychological Studies Institute in Atlanta, GA (now Richmont Graduate University), the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, and the Eastern Psychotherapy Society, New York, NY. Keith’s passion is to see people set free and transformed by the renewing of their minds though the gospel of grace and the power of God’s love. He believes that the gospel is not only the good news of our salvation but also the power of our transformation. He enjoys helping people discover the good God is working in all of life’s problems and circumstances. Keith is especially eager to walk along side men in their journey to maturity and wholeness by pursuing God’s healing in areas impeding growth into their true identity. His desire is to help men discover their unique expression of God’s love and masculine strength to their families and others. Keith is committed to a wholistic view of mental health that addresses the mind, body, and spirit, incorporating the truths of Scripture, methods of counseling, and referral to specialists as needed. When not counseling, Keith enjoys working on his farm and hosting events there.
Email: kclement@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Laura McGee, MACC
Biblical Counselor
Laura, a native of Austin Texas, graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in Politics and a minor in Religion. After graduation, she moved to the Washington DC area to pursue a career in politics. While in DC, she volunteered with Campus Crusade for Christ discipling and mentoring college women. Her passion for discipleship led to her to join staff for three years. Laura’s love for her family though led her back to North Carolina to become a full-time caregiver to her Mom who had developed a long term progressive illness. After her death, Laura moved to Raleigh in 2011 to resume a career in politics. Yet the Lord had other plans and in 2015 Laura was accepted into Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte, NC) Master’s of Counseling program and graduated in May 2017. Laura is a dedicated Dallas Cowboys fan, loves movies, her dog Bailey, and being with friends and family. Laura is passionate about helping people who are hurting find hope and confidence in the Lord’s presence and love for them while they struggle with difficult circumstances. She specializes in anxiety and depression, life transitions, grief, caregiving, workplace difficulties and single’s issues.
Email: lmcgee@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Maria Hogan, MSW, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Currently seeing NC Residents only
Maria is originally from Upstate NY and enjoys the much warmer climate of NC. She is passionate about creating a safe, gentle, and empathetic space where you can explore the complexities of life and dig into the various experiences and traumas that have contributed to how you view yourself and the world today. If you are open to it, she enjoys integrating the Bible and faith into clinical techniques, all in a way that is based on your specific needs and preferences. She draws from clinical modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), a Trauma-Informed and Psychodynamic Approach, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Maria holds a Bachelor’s in Social Work (BSW) from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY and a Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from the University of South Carolina, and she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #C011656) in the state of North Carolina; this means that she can only serve North Carolina Residents. She is currently undergoing the certification processes to become both a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and a Certified EMDR Therapist, which involves additional training and regular consultation from experts in the field.
Maria has experience working with people struggling with anxiety, depression, and addictions, and she specializes in working with people recovering from trauma and eating disorders/disordered eating, primarily using EMDR for trauma and a Health at Every Size® approach for eating disorders. She has also lived overseas and enjoys working with people who have had cross cultural experiences.
In her free time, Maria enjoys spending time with family and friends, having deep conversations, playing games, listening to audiobooks or music, and traveling the world.
Email: mhogan@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Olivia James, MA, LMFT-A
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist- Associate
Currently seeing NC Residents and Online Clients only
Olivia is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master’s Degree in Christian Marriage, Family, and Individual Counseling. Olivia is committed to providing an integrated approach to counseling with the perspective of viewing the issues and struggles we face in life with a psychological and spiritual component. It is her goal to provide clinically-informed Biblical counsel that best meets your specific challenges with both of these components in mind. Olivia greatly appreciates approaching a person as a whole, discussing physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual areas of problems and solutions you or your family are facing. Prior to coming to Bridgehaven, Olivia served through the Summit Church G4 ministry in the Anxiety/Depression Group as well as served through the Graduate Counseling program as an intern at The Summit Church. Additionally, Olivia is currently working toward becoming a Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist.
Olivia’s clinical training includes working with adolescents and adults on anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, life-transitioning, and grief counseling. Olivia’s passion is to work with those who have experienced physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; grief and chronic pain management; and counseling difficulties managing emotions. Olivia is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate (#12442A) in the state of North Carolina. Olivia currently serves North Carolina residents only, and currently only sees clients online.
When not counseling, Olivia enjoys being outdoors, especially in the mountains, with her husband and their dog.
Email: ojames@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Gene Burrus, M.Div, PhD
Biblical Counselor
Gene offers counseling from a biblical perspective, drawing from Christianity’s rich soul care tradition. He enjoys helping clients form a Christian perspective on their challenges. He offers clinically-informed biblical counseling for individuals (male and female), couples, and families.
Gene has served as a church pianist, a youth minister, a lay counselor/group facilitator, and most recently served as a student counselor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). Gene earned a Master of Divinity (MDiv) in Christian Ministry from SEBTS and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Pastoral Theology (Pastoral Care and Counseling) from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Gene is also a member of a Southern Baptist church in the Triangle.
Gene enjoys counseling and researching issues related to same-sex attraction, gender incongruence, and LGBTQ+ identification from the perspective of historic Christianity. He is available to speak on these topics, and he enjoys walking with individuals, couples, and families working through these issues as well. Other focuses include: depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, assurance of salvation, sexual addiction, pornography, doubts about Christianity, and Christian spiritual practices.
He is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and the Society for Christian Psychology. He is a Certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator.
Gene enjoys reading, writing, making spreadsheets, teaching piano/violin, working out, and spending time with his wife and two young children.
Email: gburrus@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
Debbie Lewis, MA
Biblical Counselor
Debbie is originally from Ohio. She received her bachelor’s in health education from Ohio University and her Master’s in Counseling at Colorado Christian University, under the late Dr. Larry Crabb.
Before becoming a counselor at Bridgehaven, she counseled at a missionary based middle and high school in Colorado for 5 years. From there Debbie worked with kids from the inner city who came to a horse farm to learn more about horses and themselves, anger management and self-esteem. Debbie is also currently the Program Director at Shepherd Youth Ranch where she does Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy.
Debbie is passionate about providing clinically-informed and biblically-based counseling, specifically for those who have experienced trauma in areas of spiritual, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Additionally, she will provide a safe space to walk alongside individuals, couples, or families struggling with depression, anxiety, emotion regulation, adoption/foster care, life transitions, and grief.
When not counseling, Debbie enjoys spending time with her 2 sons, riding and training horses, running, hiking in the mountains, and walking the beautiful beaches of NC.
Email: dlewis@bridgehavencounseling.org
For counseling inquiries: Please email requestcare@bridgehavencounseling.org
