About

Rosalie Genova

Maine LCPC #CC4978

Maine CCS #CCS7131

I didn’t set out to be a specialist. In graduate school, I heard the same advice everyone gets: learn the basics of addiction work because you’ll see it everywhere. Once I started, though, I realized how powerful this work could be. I spent years working in recovery residences and intensive outpatient programs, and it became clear that the themes that show up in addiction, show up in all of us: avoidance, overwhelm, shame, trying to stay in control. Addiction is one version of a much more universal human struggle.

What drew me in (and what still keeps me here) is the honesty. People in early recovery are dealing with real stakes and real consequences. They name truths about themselves that many people avoid all their lives. But acknowledging the problem is only the beginning; the harder part is deciding what to do with that truth. That tension, between knowing something needs to change and actually changing it, is something I see across substance use, mental health, relationships, and work.

A lot of therapy models were built for people who neatly follow the rules, speak the “right” clinical language, or fit within a narrow idea of what healing should look like. If you’ve ever felt misunderstood, pathologized, or pressured to conform to someone else’s plan for your life, you’re not alone, and you’re not the problem.

My work is grounded in clinical counseling with deep experience in substance use, moral injury, and the kinds of complex life stories that don’t fit into tidy diagnostic boxes. Instead of asking you to fit a model, I build therapy around your definition of well-being: your values, your vision, your pace of change. Together we identify what feels misaligned, what feels possible, and how to move toward change in a way that respects your autonomy rather than prescribing a rigid path.

While I draw from clinical frameworks, I also recognize that not everything that matters shows up on a treatment plan. Sometimes we need ways to access intuition, pattern, and meaning that don’t rely solely on problem-solving or pathology. That’s where tools like Tarot can serve as a reflective, imaginative method—helping us explore what’s beneath the surface, disrupt stuck narratives, and invite insight to support the clinical work we’re doing.

I hold a deep belief in people’s capacity to rebuild, because I’ve seen it happen over and over again. As Hannah Gadsby says, “There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.” I would extend that to anyone who’s had to put themselves back together. There is a strength in that process that cannot be faked.

For a comprehensive list of my credentials, please click here.

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