Alana McCraw

Alana is a down-to-earth counselor and committed to holistic healing: counseling and meditation for the mind, yoga, and health coaching for the body. She is excited to help people through the struggles that can be presented in day-to-day life, with the understanding that healing is most efficiently obtained when one works on aspects of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements within themselves. In order to walk her talk, Alana enjoys regular exercise by running, weight lifting, or doing yoga!

Her journey into the healing realm of counseling began with an interest in Buddhist philosophy during eighth grade when she first yearned for balance and peace among the human race. She entered therapy sessions herself at that time and vividly remembers literally being sick to her stomach when reviewing the Holocaust while reading and watching the Diary of Anne Frank. It wasn’t until her second semester at Vassar College when she took a course on Religions of Asia that she had an epiphany: she wanted to explore a healing method that combined aspects of eastern philosophy - such as meditation, mindfulness, and yoga - with psychological sciences to help people cope with problems from their pasts as well as everyday obstacles-- stress in particular. And so, she worked to equip herself with the necessary foundations that would enable her to help herself and others work through old wounds and stressful situations.

Through Alana's approach to counseling, she encourages the individual to first recognize that they have the potential to be more than they perceive to be by realizing that their “fixed ideas of self” are not as permanent as they believe.

Alana is actively pursuing her Master’s degree in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. She also studied with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach (because how you fuel your body is part of the holistic process too!).