In-Person in Kansas City, MO 64105
Online in Missouri
If you're looking for someone to validate everything you're already thinking, I'm probably not your therapist. But if you're ready to actually look at what's keeping you stuck — in your relationships, your patterns, your story — then we might be a really good fit. I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with five consecutive years recognized as Kansas City's top couples therapist, pre-marital counselor and marriage and family therapist by KC Magazine, The Pitch KC and the Kansas City Star. I work with individuals, couples and families who are done just surviving and ready to understand themselves at a deeper level. Therapy here is warm, direct and honest — sometimes uncomfortably so. That's the point.
Client Focus
Session Format: Couple, Family, Individual sessions.
Age Specialty: Adult, Senior, Young Adult
Demographic Expertise: Men, Women clients.
Languages: English
Treatment Approach
- Biopsychosocial Therapy Takes into account biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding mental health. It looks at the whole person, not just symptoms.
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) Builds skills in self-kindness and compassion toward others. It is especially helpful for people who struggle with shame or self-criticism.
- Dance / Movement Therapy Uses movement and body awareness to express emotions and improve mental health. It can increase confidence, reduce stress, and support healing.
- Eclectic Therapy Draws from different therapeutic methods based on what fits each client best. It is flexible and personalized rather than following one single model.
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) Focuses on strengthening emotional bonds in couples or families. It helps people identify negative cycles and create more secure connections.
- Existential / Humanistic Therapy Encourages people to explore meaning, freedom, and authenticity in their lives. It focuses on personal growth and living in alignment with one’s values.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) A structured therapy that uses guided eye movements to help process traumatic memories. It is widely recognized for treating PTSD and trauma-related conditions.
- Feminist Therapy Addresses how gender roles, power, and social inequality affect mental health. It empowers clients to challenge limiting beliefs and systems.
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy Based on decades of research, this method gives couples tools to improve communication, manage conflict, and strengthen intimacy.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) Helps clients heal by working with different ‘parts’ of themselves, like inner critics or wounded children. It fosters harmony within the self.
- Jungian Therapy Draws on Carl Jung’s ideas about archetypes, dreams, and the collective unconscious. It helps people explore deeper layers of meaning.
- Multicultural Therapy Acknowledges the role of culture, race, and identity in mental health. It values diversity and adapts treatment to each person’s background.
- Narrative Therapy Encourages people to view problems as separate from themselves and reframe their life story. It helps build resilience and self-identity.
- Psychoeducational Therapy Provides education and coping tools about mental health conditions. It empowers clients with knowledge and practical skills.
- Relational Psychotherapy Emphasizes the healing power of the therapist-client relationship. It uses trust and safety as a foundation for change.
- Somatic Therapy Helps clients notice how emotions are stored in the body. It uses breath, movement, and awareness for healing trauma and stress.
Approach Description: My approach starts with your story — not your symptoms. Using Narrative Therapy as a foundation, we work to separate you from the problems you've internalized as identity. You are not your anxiety. You are not your failed relationship. You are a person with a history that shaped a set of responses, and those responses made sense once even if they're destroying you now.
From there I draw on Internal Family Systems to explore the different parts of you that show up — the protector who keeps people at arm's length, the inner critic who won't let you rest, the part that already knows exactly what needs to change but is terrified to say it out loud. IFS gives us a language for the internal conflict that most people just call "I don't know why I do this."
Jungian depth psychology runs underneath all of it — the shadow work, the archetypes, the patterns that repeat across your relationships and your life because something unexamined keeps driving the car.
For couples I bring in Gottman's research-backed framework for understanding what's actually eroding your connection, EFT to access the attachment needs underneath the conflict, and Collaborative Language to shift the dynamic from adversarial to partnered.
I'll also draw on somatic awareness and EMDR-informed techniques when the body is holding what the mind hasn't been able to process yet.
This is not passive therapy. I will challenge you, reflect things back that are uncomfortable, and hold you to the version of yourself you said you wanted to be. Come ready to work.
Fees & Insurance
Fees
- Average Session Fee $250
- Affordable sliding scale therapy: apply if you may be eligible.
- Sliding Scale is based on personal need/budget. You tell me what's in your budget and we work to make sure it's something I can acommodate within your treatment goals.
- Out of Network
Education & Credentials
Kieri Olmstead LMFT
- Female
- License # 2020000888
- Licensed in MO
- Practicing Since 2017
Education: M.S. in Family Therapy, Friends University (2017). B.S. in Psychology, Westminster College (2011). Advanced training in Internal Family Systems, Narrative Therapy, EMDR, Somatic Therapy & Narcissistic Personality Disorder treatment and recovery
Kieri Olmstead Practice Details
Therapy Sessions
- Available In-Person in Kansas City, MO 64105
- Available Online for residents of Missouri
- Online Therapy Details: teletherapy available through Jane App
Simple Empathy is a Kansas City-based therapy practice built on one belief: that real change requires real honesty. I work through a depth-oriented lens — drawing primarily from Narrative Therapy, Internal Family Systems and Jungian frameworks — to help clients understand not just what they're doing, but why, and what it means about the story they've been living.
For couples and families I integrate Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy and Collaborative Language approaches to help people stop having the same fight and start having the real one. I'm also trained in EMDR and Somatic approaches, which I weave in where the work calls for it.
I describe myself as a high-challenge therapist. That means I'm going to notice things. I'm going to name them. And I'm not going to let you stay comfortable in a pattern that's hurting you. If you've been to therapy before and felt like something was being left unsaid, that won't happen here.
I work with adults, couples and families navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship conflict, life transitions and identity questions. Telehealth available statewide. In-person sessions in Kansas City.
Simple Empathy — therapy done differently.