Dr. Diane Benfield

God has blessed me with this career and passion to accompany clients through life’s struggles, disappointments, mistakes, tragedies, illnesses, hard decisions, and suffering. My aim is to walk with clients, to undo the unbearable aloneness of suffering, and gently guide towards healing, acceptance, and connection from the very first session. I have been practicing clinical social work for 13 years and have experience with grief, trauma, addictions, relationship and family conflict, cancer, codependency, existential and faith crises, depression, and anxiety. I specialize in helping clients search for meaning in life’s painful experiences.

The predominant form of therapy I practice is called Accelerated Experiential Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). This healing framework is an emotions-focused, somatic, experiential and deeply relational model rooted in attachment theory. Healing starts in the very first session as the warm and attuned therapeutic relationship is co-created. I am actively emotionally engaged with clients. I focus on building trust and safety and accompanying clients in emotional experiences to undo unbearable aloneness. We face the difficult and the beautiful things in life together.

My doctoral dissertation explored the phenomenon of Post Traumatic Growth. This optimistic and healing framework perfectly describes what I see in working with cancer patients – the paradoxical, unexpected, and unmistakable growth that follows an earth-shattering, life-changing trauma. There are silver linings buried in suffering. We look to experience them together while searching for meaning. I witnessed this growth routinely during my work with cancer patients at the Robert and Carol Weissman Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health.

I earned a BA in Hospitality Management from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland (1992). I traveled the world for 10 years and was a public school teacher in Florida for almost 10 years before earning a Master of Social Work from Barry University (2011). I worked in the field of substance abuse treatment for 8 years. In 2021, I graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Doctor of Social Work. I live in Stuart, FL and I am licensed to practice in Florida, North Carolina, and Washington. I operate a small fully virtual practice at this time and accept some Florida insurance plans.