Lily Kays

Meet Lily Kays

Lily Kays: LCSW-A, Therapist at Abhaya Wellness

I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate (LCSW-A) from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who works with people navigating the messy, exciting, disorienting stretch of life that is college and early adulthood. Whether you’re figuring out who you are, managing anxiety or depression, adjusting to a new diagnosis, or just trying to survive a transition nobody prepared you for. My space is one you don’t have to perform in, you have space to just be.

I work predominantly with college aged clients, with a more specific focus on LGBTQIA+ clients. I’m a generalist at heart: if you’re not sure your “thing” fits neatly into a category, that’s okay. Bring it anyway. I draw on evidence based approaches from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and then mindfulness and Somatic based Mind/Body connectivity. I work to meet you where you are as our therapeutic relationship grows. I don’t believe therapy works without trust, so building that at your pace, comes first.

I also come to this work through a series of unexpected doors: years of training as an intimacy director and coordinator for stage and film. That training shaped how I think about consent, boundaries, and safety, and it lives in every session — alongside a trauma-informed lens and genuine curiosity about how our brains and bodies hold our stories.

Outside the Office: I’m a lifelong soccer player, theatre artist, and a devoted lover of animals and the outdoors.