Anne Koenig‑Shimsky
When Anne Koenig‑Shimsky, a former resident of Highlands, returned after being away for five years, she didn’t slip quietly into town – she rooted herself here with the steadiness of someone who knows how to build a life from the ground up.
As our newest clinician at the Counseling Center of Highlands, she brings decades of experience, a deep respect for community, and a rare blend of humor, ritual, and grounded wisdom. She offers play therapy, family therapy, couples therapy, and individual therapy, each shaped by her warm, grounded approach.
Those who meet her quickly sense the Kansas farm girl still alive in her, the memoirist who listens for the story beneath the story, and the gardener who understands that healing, like growth, happens in seasons. We’re delighted to introduce Anne to the wider community through this conversation.
Q&A with Anne
Q: Anne, what first drew you to the field of mental health?
I didn’t come to this work through a straight line. I came through life – through loss, grit, and the kind of family stories that settle into your bones. I grew up on a Kansas farm where people didn’t always have the language for what they were carrying, but they carried it all the same. I learned early how to listen beneath the surface. Over time, I realized I had a gift for helping people name what hurts and what’s possible. Becoming a therapist felt like remembering something I already knew.
Q: You’ve practiced in many settings. What feels different about working in a community counseling center?
Community work feels like home. I’ve been in private practice, hospitals, and even a Spanish‑speaking clinic in Atlanta – where, ironically, I was the only clinician who didn’t speak Spanish. But community centers have a heartbeat I love. People walk in with real life in their hands: caregiving, grief, identity shifts, trauma, hope. There’s no performance. There’s just humanity meeting humanity.
Q: What do you hope clients feel when they sit with you?
I want them to feel like they can finally exhale. So many people have spent their lives performing – for family, for partners, for the world. My room is a place where they don’t have to. I’m warm, direct, and a little mischievous. I bring humor, ritual, and embodied practices into the work. I want people to feel seen as clever, resilient, and capable – not as a diagnosis.
Q: You’re known for weaving ritual and narrative into therapy. What does that look like?
Ritual helps us mark the moments our culture rushes past – grief, aging, caregiving, letting go, becoming someone new. Narrative helps us reclaim authorship. I often tell clients, “Your story isn’t finished. You’re still writing it.” When people reconnect with their own voice, something shifts. They stop surviving and start belonging to themselves again.
Q: What excites you about joining the Counseling Center of Highlands?
This center feels like a place where compassion isn’t a slogan – it’s the culture. I’m excited to bring my experience with grief work, family systems, and creative therapeutic approaches. I’m also drawn to the center’s commitment to accessibility. Healing shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be something anyone can reach for.
Q: What nourishes you outside the therapy room?
Writing helps me braid together the spiritual, generational, and humorous threads of my life. Leaving Atlanta and the Spanish‑speaking clinic opened a door I didn’t know I was waiting for. I was able to buy a home from a beloved community member here in Highlands, and it came with an English garden that feels like it’s been waiting for me.
You know, Linda, I like to say about my early life, “You can take the woman off the farm, but never the farm out of the woman.” Highlands is a gardener’s dream – you can grow anything anywhere – so if I’m not in my own garden, you’ll find me wandering Main Street Nursery or Highlands Lawn and Garden, plotting my next bloom.
Closing Note from Linda:
As you can see, Anne brings a rare combination of depth, humor, and lived w\isdom to our center – the kind of presence that strengthens not only our clinical team but the wider Highlands community. We are grateful she chose to plant new roots here, to tend both her garden and the people who walk through our doors with equal care. Please join us in welcoming her to the Counseling Center of Highlands as she begins this new chapter of service, healing, and wholehearted belonging. (828) 482-7417.
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