Center for Authentic Growth

Center for Authentic Growth modern mental heath group practice🧠
helping humans of TN grow into their most authentic relationships with themselves & others🌱
in person & virtual✨

01/21/2026

✨ In Session with Lydia ✨

Meet Lydia Henderson, MA, ATR-P — our incredible art therapist creating judgment-free space for healing through creativity and connection. 🎨💛 Lydia believes you don’t have to be an artist to benefit from art therapy — it’s about expression, exploration, and finding new ways to tell your story. Together, she works collaboratively with clients, weaving art-making with talk therapy to deepen insight, support identity exploration, and foster emotional growth. 🌱

Lydia brings a q***r, neurodivergent, intersectional lens to her work, honoring each person’s lived experience and creative voice. 🖌️✨ Whether it’s collage, altered books, sculpture, or photography, she helps you make art about what matters most. 

📍 Listen to what she is like in session and see how art isn’t just what you make — it’s how you make meaning.

01/12/2026

✨ Friday’s Lunch & Learn was SUCH a treat — we got to spend the afternoon with the incredible Hannah Bethel (.healing), a certified clinical hypnotherapist, master practitioner of NLP, and all-around magical human. ✨

Hannah walked us through how hypnotherapy supports nervous system regulation, subconscious healing, and the rewiring of old patterns that keep clients stuck — and y’all… it was so cool to learn how powerful and body-based this work can be.

We even got to do a little embodied deepening demo, and our whole team was feeling grounded, soft, and very “wow, our subconscious minds are WILD.”

Huge thank you to Hannah for sharing your brilliance, your warmth, and the incredible science + artistry behind what you do. 💛

Always grateful for a community that learns together, heals together, and stays endlessly curious.

01/07/2026

Office No. 1 ✨ Payton’s office ✨

Cozy on purpose. A little eclectic. Very lived-in.
This space is full of plants that keep growing, shelves that get pulled from mid-session, soft chairs you can really sink into, and lots of thoughtful little details for real humans doing real work.

Play is woven into the room—not separate, not obvious, just there when it’s needed. Sensory objects to fidget with, art and playful textures, room for curiosity, creativity, and moving through things without needing the right words. Whether you’re a kid, teen, or adult, this is a space where play, imagination, and expression are part of how safety and healing happen.

Warm without being stuffy. Grounded without being serious. A space where you get to show up as you are, breathe a little easier, and be human. 🌿

***raffirming

01/01/2026

A room full of clinking glasses, deep laughs, and people who genuinely show up. ✨

Last year stretched us, grew us, challenged us, and shaped us in ways we’re proud of. We learned how to slow down, how to support each other better, how to hold care with integrity, and how to keep choosing community even when things felt full.

We’re endlessly grateful for this team - for the heart, creativity, thoughtfulness, and presence each person brings into the room and into their work.

Here’s to carrying that care forward.
Into the new year, new intentions, deeper connection, and continued growth, together. 🥂

12/15/2025

Last Friday’s Lunch & Learn was one for the books. 💛🎶

We were so lucky to welcome Maria Malafronte from Empower Music Therapy, who led our team through a powerful, embodied experience on the impact of music therapy. Together, we listened to Crowded Table and reflected on what we’re carrying from 2025 and what we want to intentionally bring into 2026.

Through lyric analysis, we circled words, noticed emotions, tracked sensations in our bodies, and paid attention to the sounds that stirred something deeper. There truly wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

We closed by reflecting at our tables — naming what we want more of, who we want to make space for, and how we want our “tables” to feel in the year ahead. Full hearts, meaningful connection, and a beautiful reminder of how creative therapies help us access what words alone sometimes can’t.

So grateful for community, music, and learning together. ✨

12/09/2025

Obsessed is an understatement 🥹📚🌱

Our Little Library + Art & Seed Exchange is officially live and ready to be loved by our community!

Here’s how it works:
✨ Take a book, leave a book
✨ Drop off or grab art supplies, zines, or small creative treasures
✨ Swap seeds, cuttings, or little plant starts
✨ No checkout, no rules, no expectations — just sharing

This little cabinet exists because we deeply believe that access to resources, creativity, and connection shouldn’t be locked behind money or gatekeeping. Sharing what we have is one small way we can show up for each other, build community, and remind ourselves that mutual care matters. Whether you’re taking exactly what you need today or leaving something for a future stranger — it all counts. 💛

Come by, grab something that speaks to you or swap something sweet to help us keep this tiny magic box full! ✨

Also, shout out to Payton‘s Grandpa who made this for us! 🥹

12/06/2025

Office 6 — Shelby’s Sanctuary ✨

Shelby’s space is cozy, earthy, and so thoughtfully curated — a room filled with soft light, warm tones, expressive art, and grounding textures that help clients settle in and breathe a little deeper. From the floral rug to the layered artwork to the lived-in comfort of the chairs and couch, every corner invites connection, creativity, and authenticity.

We believe therapy feels different — safer, richer, more transformative — when clinicians bring their whole selves into the room. Shelby does exactly that. This space holds stories, identities, big emotions, quiet moments, and everything in between… all with care and intention.

If you’re looking for a place that’s both supportive and deeply human, Office 6 is ready for you. 💛

12/04/2025

🎥 In Session Series — Meet Cadey (she/her) ✨

Stepping into the therapy room with Cadey feels like landing somewhere steady, safe, and deeply seen. As an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, IFS Level 3 trained + certified clinician, and a therapist skilled in multiple trauma-processing modalities, her work is both grounded and powerfully transformative.

Her approach is centered, calm, and deeply affirming—always meeting you at your pace and honoring your readiness.
✨ When you’re ready, she’s ready.

12/02/2025

✨ Our Giving Tree for the East Nashville Care Market is officially up! ✨

This season, we’re partnering with the (ENCM) to support our neighbors who rely on community care for groceries, household essentials, and dignity-centered support. ✨

Here’s how you can join us in spreading some warmth this winter:
- Take a tag from the tree in our lobby — each one lists a gift or essential item requested by someone in our Nashville community.
- Purchase the item on your tag.
- You can also donate gently used clothing (any size!) or gently used toys — ENCM will gladly share these with families who need them.
- Return everything to CAG by December 22nd. Wrapped is lovely but not required — we’ll take care of the rest.
- We’ll deliver all items and donations to ENCM before Christmas so they can be shared directly with local families.

It’s a small act with a big impact — and a way to live out the values of care, community, and mutual support that mean so much to us at CAG. Thank you for helping us make the season brighter for our Nashville neighbors. 💛🌱

11/27/2025

Gratitude holds a lot of layers today. This season can bring joy, heaviness, tension, and comfort — and all of it is valid.

As we came together in community, we felt especially grateful for this team, for the healing we get to witness, and for the space we’ve built where people can show up exactly as they are.

Here’s to connection, care, and the work we’re honored to do — today and every day. 🥂✨

11/25/2025

Office 2 ✨

A cozy, earth-toned corner of CAG where healing feels a little softer and settling in comes naturally.

Filled with warm woods, plants, and natural textures, this space is designed to help clients feel grounded, connected, and fully held the moment they walk in.

Sarah has created such a nurturing, steady environment here — we’re so lucky to have her warmth rooted in this room. 🌿🤎

***raffirmingtherapy

11/21/2025

Tonight, clinicians from and came together at Middle Tennessee’s Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience to honor the lives of transgender people we’ve lost — and to stand alongside the community that continues to resist, rise, and reimagine a safer world.

TDOR is sacred. It asks us to slow down, remember, mourn, and refuse to look away from the violence our trans siblings face. And it also calls us to lift up the brilliance, strength, and futurity of trans people who are very much here — building worlds, shaping culture, loving deeply, and surviving against the odds.

It was our privilege to sit with everyone in attendance… to hold space for grief, resilience, tenderness, anger, celebration, and everything in between.
We were grateful to share resources from Healing in the Margins, an organization working to expand access to affirming, culturally-informed, and identity-rooted mental health care for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities — not just through direct support, but through systems change, provider education, and community-driven programming.

Trans people are essential. Trans identities are beautiful. Trans futures matter — and we will keep showing up, resourcing, advocating, and holding space every step of the way.

✨ Learn more about their work and how to get connected here:
https://www.healinginthemargins.com/

Address

Nashville, TN
37204

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+16157672385

Website

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