Courtney W Albert, LMHC, M.Ed., MA

Founder & President

 Courtney is the Founder & President of Give Way to Freedom and a licensed mental health counselor with a private practice in Poughkeepsie, New York. Courtney specializes in trauma therapy and is an EMDRIA certified EMDR therapist.  She completed intensive courses in Sensorimotor, Dialectical Behavior, and Ego –State Therapy, as well as EMDR. She is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional: Complex Trauma (CCTP levels 1 & 2).

Courtney was a mental health counselor for international survivors of human trafficking and torture at the Helen Bamber Foundation, London, UK, and for domestic minor victims of sex trafficking at the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie. She was also a mental health counselor at Columbia County Mental Health.

Courtney is a member of the Dutchess County Taskforce Against Human Trafficking and headed it’s training subcommittee for ten years. Courtney was a member and executive board member of CASADA (Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse) for 6 years. Courtney has facilitated numerous trainings and workshops on human trafficking and the psychological impact of interpersonal trauma for a wide variety of professional groups and agencies, including medical and mental health providers, social service providers, educators, law enforcement officers, probation officers and attorneys. Courtney is a Law Enforcement Training & Technical Assistance Consortium Human Trafficking Instructor through OVW IIR. Courtney was awarded the 2018 Crime Victim Services Award by Family Services & Vassar SAVP (Sexual Assault & Violence Program). In May 2019, she was given the Outstanding Alumna Award for the Albany Academy for Girls in Upstate New York.

Courtney completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with honors, from the University of Rochester, her Masters of Education in Counseling Psychology from Temple University and her Masters of Arts in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of New Haven.