Dr. Katherine Qubain Ernst

Dr. Katherine Qubain Ernst holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and is a licensed psychologist (NC Psychologist 6461). She specializes in working with teens, young adults, and parents, and has focused clinical experience treating anxiety, depression, and supporting neurodiverse individuals such as those with ADHD and autism. She also works with LGBTQ+ individuals and families.

At this time, Dr. Ernst offers messaging-based services only. These services consist of asynchronous, text-only conversations between the therapist and the client - a format she is happy to discuss further with anyone considering therapeutic support or parent coaching via messaging.

Originally from The Triangle in North Carolina, Dr. Ernst lived outside Philadelphia for more than ten years while completing her education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Swarthmore College and completed both her master’s and doctoral degrees at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology. During her doctoral training she completed concentrations in Diversity and Cross-cultural Psychology; Children, Adolescents, and Families; and School Psychology. Her clinical internships included placements in a public school, a community mental health center serving children, teens, and families, and an inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

After returning to North Carolina in 2020, Dr. Ernst spent three years in private practice working primarily with LGBTQ+ teens, young adults, and their parents. She approaches individual therapy and parent coaching with warmth, acceptance, and compassion, integrating third-wave therapies - including Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) - alongside Family Systems perspectives. She is particularly committed to an intersectional, trauma-informed, and gender-affirming approach when supporting LGBTQ+ young people and their families.

She goes by “Katherine” or “Dr. Ernst,” and uses she/her pronouns. Dr. Ernst lives in The Triangle with her partner and their rescue dog and cats, and she openly identifies as a queer, disabled, Arab-American woman.