Bio
Dr. Gadson is a licensed professional counselor, consulting therapist, educator, and podcast host. She received her B.S. in Business Management from The University of Alabama, her M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Troy State University, her M.S. in Spirituality and Counseling from Richmont Graduate University, and her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amridge University. Dr. Gadson hosts the podcast, “And The Church Said,” that discusses church and culture from a Christian counseling perspective, focusing on mental and emotional health and the church. She provides counseling and consulting services through her practice, FourCee Counseling and Consulting Services, LLC., concerning issues such as grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, marriage and family care, relationship challenges, questions of faith, and spiritual abuse. Her areas of professional and ministerial interest include premarital and pre-engagement education/counseling, individual development, effects of trauma on development, family-of-origin influences, relationships, marriage and family therapy and education, the intersection of theology and psychology, and the Church and mental health ministry.
Dr. Gadson served on the staff of a church for 16 years as the clinical mental health counselor. She also has served as an expert contributor to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for a video-based training series for chaplain services, and as a consulting therapist for several churches and organizations. She has taught several courses in psychology, counseling, leadership development, legal and ethical professional development in marriage and family therapy, systematic evaluation and case management, and human development. Presentations at professional conferences include the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, and the American Association of Christian Counselors. Passionate about individual development and relationship education, considering these as means of discipleship, she believes the cornerstone for a healthy society is the love for one’s self and others fueled by a love of God.
Her latest book, Finding Hope in a Dark Place: Facing Loneliness, Depression, and Anxiety with the Power of Grace, co-authored with Clarence Shuler, was released in 2022.
Dr. Gadson is married and has two daughters. Her hobbies include Alabama football, writing spoken word pieces, reading, listening to great music, exercising, journaling, photography, scrapbooking, gardening, and hanging out with her family and friends. She loves long walks, preferably on the beach, sunsets and sunrises, and time outside enjoying nature.
What are you currently reading?
I’ve been reading Edwin Friedman’s work. I started reading him when I was in grad school, and I’ve picked up a lot more of his books lately. I’ve also been reading about leadership, Latasha Morrison’s Be the Bridge also Christina Edmondson’s Faithful Antiracism.
What have you been listening to lately?
I listen to a lot of different podcasts. My favorite happens to be good friends who have their own podcast: Truth’s Table. And also The Best of You with Alison Cook. I have moved away from listening to music and mostly listen to podcasts now.
What research do you find yourself drawn to at the moment?
I continue to study and research the intersection of faith and mental health, trying to help churches. I’ve been able to consult with churches over time when they’re trying to consider implementing counseling ministries or even just how to make their environment more emotionally and mentally healthy. What can they implement? What sermons should they be preaching? Where should they be sensitive? So I do a lot of reading, researching, and writing between faith and mental health.
And also I study societal emotional process, the emotional processes that are happening out in society. When we recognize what is happening–such as polarization, cancel culture–all these things we have going on, we study that through the lens of societal and emotional processes first and foremost. According to the research on regression, when people group around the least mature leader, that’s a sign that you’re in a state of regression because people are drawn to quick-fix solutions as opposed to long-term sustainability. I think of societal emotional process through a systemic lens, and my reading and research are around systemic issues and thinking systemically as well as generationally. In my research and writing, I take that lens and apply it to institutions, for example, thinking about what was going on with this institution before we were here, and what processes, emotional processes, have been passed down, either knowingly or unknowingly. And what is passed through families, how those systems are built, how do they develop, what is transmitted from generation to generation, and how that contributes to society.
What is something you are looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to finishing some writing. I’ve been encouraged to write a couple of chapters for a book proposal, so I’m in the middle of those. I’m really looking forward to tying those up and seeing what will unfold with that project.
At The Seattle School, I’m looking forward to teaching students this term. Teaching grad school has been really fun because people are doing what they want to do. In undergrad they may be there because they have to take the class and just want to move on to the next thing. With the students here at The Seattle School, I just love the opportunity to teach people who know what they want to do. And since I’ve done it for so many years, it’s really fun to pour that wisdom, that experience, that knowledge back to the students.
If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would they be?
Michelle Obama seems so down to earth and I can imagine she has so much wisdom for how she’s had to navigate being First Lady of the United States as a Black woman.
If you weren’t in your current profession, you’d be…?
I would be a sports psychologist working with college football teams. I would love to be able to observe how the team behaving like a “family” could potentially have adverse effects on the overall team productivity.
Who is your literary or living hero?
I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be with Mrs. Autherine Lucy Foster. She was the first Black student who attempted to enroll at the University of Alabama. The future Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, became one of her lawyers who fought for her to be fully admitted. However, although she was granted admittance, she faced extreme persecution and as the result of mob riots, she was forced to leave the University. I knew her personally before her death. She, my father, and her husband were really good friends, and one of her daughters and I were one year apart in school. And we’re still really good friends to this day. Our daughters roomed in college, so it was a generational thing. Our families have just known each other for years. You knew her to be a historical figure, but you really didn’t. It was during those times when she would be honored and especially on her death, you remembered how huge her life really was. So I was grateful for the opportunities that I had to be with her, sit with her, listen to her, and for her guidance and direction. I look at her as a hero, and as a matter of fact, at her memorial service, hearing her voice, I think in part, paved the way for me to be here.