Deborah Hilyard

Deborah K. Hilyard is a Florida-based licensed mental health counselor with 34 years of experience. She completed a graduate degree in counseling at the University of Memphis in 1988 and worked in the campus career counseling office during her graduate studies.

Her professional background includes roles with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy family centers, where she established a transitional program for service members leaving the military and later provided mental health counseling for service members and their families. She has extensive experience addressing the particular stresses faced by military families, including uncertainty, clinical depression, and relationship strains related to separations.

Across multiple settings, Deborah has supported people through relationship difficulties, anger, anxiety and depression. She has also worked with parenting challenges, career struggles and workplace discord, and performed comprehensive assessments in the foster care system that consider children, their past and present environments, and their parent(s) or guardians.

Her experience includes working with victims of emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as supporting their significant others. For the past two years she has been working at Betterhelp addressing a wide variety of concerns.

Deborah is a licensed mental health counselor in Florida, authorized to provide professional therapy in the state. Her counseling style is warm and interactive - she emphasizes respect, sensitivity and compassion and does not rely on stigmatizing labels. She integrates client-centered, cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused and rational-emotive approaches, tailoring the conversation and treatment plan to each person’s unique needs.

Seeking therapy takes courage, and Deborah aims to support and empower individuals as they take the first steps toward a more fulfilling and happier life. She looks forward to working with those who are ready to begin that process.