Darby Pistilli, MS, LPC, CMHC, CCTP

Hi, I’m Darby Pistilli.

My specialty areas include complex trauma, attachment and relational wounds, eating disorders, OCD, PANS/PANDAS, and addiction. I practice from an internal family systems framework and am an EMDR provider. My work also integrates somatic interventions, psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, and select TF-CBT informed principles. I am currently training in expressive arts therapy and continue to explore how creativity, movement, and embodiment can support healing.

In addition to my therapy work, I am a published writer. I am the co-author of Long Story Short; you survive, a lyric-guided journal inspired by Taylor Swift’s album folklore. The journal uses reflective prompts through an internal family systems lens to help readers explore different parts of themselves with more curiosity, compassion, and honesty.

Long Story Short; you survive also received a public review from actress KaDee Strickland, known for playing Dr. Charlotte King on Private Practice, the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff series, as well as roles in Chicago Fire, The grudge, Fever Pitch, and American Gangster. Her response to the journal felt especially meaningful because the project was created to invite reflection, parts-based exploration, self-understanding, and a more compassionate relationship with survival.

I have also published a book of poetry and written numerous pieces for Whole Hearted Healing’s website, including Art as Revolution, The Math Girl, and Somewhere Between Voice Notes and Survival. My writing has also appeared on Medium, where I have written about suicide prevention, and Patch, where I have written about how creativity can support mental health.

Outside of the therapy space, I am a pro-level aerial performer, choreographer, award-winning competitor, and coach. I have been featured in music videos and independent film projects, and I have performed and competed as a soloist nationally and internationally. I have also performed nationally and internationally as part of a duo team known as Barbs & Tash.

I have guest performed in charity events such as Mynx Pole Extravaganza and Worthy, which raised funds for sexual violence survivors and suicide prevention. Collectively, these events raised over $75,000 over a weekend of performances.

As a coach and choreographer, I have worked with performers both in person and virtually. I have coached and choreographed award-winning pieces across a wide range of styles, including modern, sultry, power flow, and heels. Right now, I am especially interested in storytelling through contemporary and modern movement.

I am also an artist. When I am not in the therapy space or dangling upside down, I spend a great deal of time in the ceramic studio exploring different kinds of clay, wheel throwing, and hand sculpting. I am also an avid knitter and crocheter, and I often draft my own patterns. I love to paint, play piano and guitar, write music, and continue learning photography and videography.

Across all of these areas, I am interested in how people survive, create, move, remember, repair, and make meaning from what they have lived through.

If you would like to get in touch, say hello.