Ita Gilbert Dore
MS, LPC, Clinical Supervisor
Ita specializes in marriage, divorce, adult, and family counseling. She employs a strong inter-agency approach to treatment by coordinating services with school, legal, public, and private agencies as needed. She has been in private practice in the North Georgia area for over 30 years and has extensive experience working with substance abuse, parenting, women’s issues, domestic violence, and helping divorced parents/blended families keep the best interest of the child first.
Ita is known to be very frank and genuine with the clients she serves, fostering a very mutually open experience for clients to explore and discover the root causes of their issues. She approaches therapy with a, “teach them to fish rather than giving them the fish” perspective, in order to empower her clients to take realizations discovered in session and set themselves free from beliefs and thought patterns that may have worked at one time but only hold people back now. She uses her personal experiences to create a non-judgmental atmosphere with an, “I’ve been there and done that too” spirit. Ita enjoys mentoring women encouraging them to fully recognize their worth and gifts while developing the strength and confidence to build the life and relationships they seek. Whether it’s struggles with career, friendships, dating, or adjusting to the realities of adult and/or married life “Mama Ita”, as several of her clients call her, always cares enough to walk with clients through the hard talks and celebrate their growth with them. She says, “I am humbled every day that people are willing to come in here and trust me to talk about the things they really don’t want to talk to anyone about. I recognize the bravery that takes even when they don’t see themselves that way yet. At the end of the day, we are all floating around on this big ball of dirt trying to get by the best we know how!”
Personally, Ita is not only a breast cancer survivor but also the mother of six children in a blended family giving her real-life experience with step-parenting and maintaining the family beyond divorce. Having a practice in a farm setting, she developed the belief that, “the only difference between manure and good fertilizer is what you do with it.” She knows and teaches clients from her own experience that the struggles in a person’s life can be fertile soil for great growth.