Meet Paula
Paula Johnson, MS, LMHC is the Owner and Director of Centered Mind Counseling Services and the Founder of Centered Connections — two independent practices built from the ground up, owned and led by a clinician who has never stopped seeing this work as a calling. At a time when independent mental health practices are disappearing into corporate ownership, Centered Mind Counseling Services and Centered Connections remain personal. Every decision about care, about providers, about how this organization runs goes through someone who built it with her own hands and has never lost sight of why.
Paula started as that kid who wanted to save the world. Reality gently reminded her she could not do it alone — so she built something larger. If she could bring together providers she would trust with her own family and friends, the care she believed in could reach more people, more families, more of the community she cares about. More than a decade later, two of the providers who walked through the door when CMCS first opened in 2015 are still here. That is not a coincidence. It is what happens when you build something real. Reach out to connect with our team.
Paula Johnson, MS, LMHC — Owner & Director, Centered Mind Counseling Services | Founder, Centered Connections
Good care does not happen by accident. It is built — with the right people, the right support, and an owner who has never stopped believing that what happens in a therapy room ripples out into the world.
A Calling. My Life’s Work.
I was in fifth grade when my teacher introduced the word vocation. A calling. A life’s work. I heard it and something settled in me that has never really moved since. Not in a dramatic way. In a quiet, certain way. Like recognizing something you already knew.
That knowing followed me everywhere. Through high school volunteering at food drives, nursing homes, and community events. Into college at Portland State University, where I designed and implemented a mentorship program for homeless children at the YWCA Transitional School.
Research, graduate school, a Master’s in Counseling from the University of Idaho in 1999, years of practice across inpatient, residential, outpatient, and private practice — all of it leading somewhere. I did not know exactly where yet. But I knew why.
Centered Mind Counseling Services — Built on Purpose. Built With Heart.
In 2015 I opened Centered Mind Counseling Services in Issaquah with a mission beyond my own caseload. I had spent years doing meaningful work one person at a time. I knew there was more. I built Centered Mind Counseling Services around a simple lens: would I refer my own family and friends to this person? Would I trust them with someone I love? That question has guided every clinician we have ever brought on. Two years later we opened our Sammamish office. And every day that followed reinforced what I had always believed — when providers feel genuinely supported, the people sitting across from them feel it too.
Then 2020 happened.
It was a hard stop. Overnight, everything that had held our culture together — shared office space, hallway conversations, in-person lunch consultations — was gone. I had a choice: go quiet, or find new ways to stay connected.
So we got creative.
We built our own internal employee app — our version of a team Facebook — where clinicians could connect, ask for referrals, post updates, and share wins. We had cookie decorating kits mailed from a Boston bakery to every employee’s home and decorated together over video. Virtual candle making. Ugly sweater parties. Book clubs. People started organizing their own hike meetups and bike rides.
What started as a way to hold our culture together during an isolating time became something we never stopped doing.
Today that app is where we post newsletters, celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries, and share in-person events. It is how we stay connected whether someone is in the Issaquah office, the Sammamish office, or working remotely. It is not perfect. But it is ours.
Connection does not happen automatically. You have to choose it, build it, and keep choosing it even when it is hard.
Centered Connections — When the Why Is Bigger Than the Obstacle
In 2022 I started laying the foundation for Centered Connections — built around two services I believe in deeply: comprehensive psychological assessments and group therapy.
Centered Connections — a name that holds two meanings to me.
Group therapy is about connection with others — the moment isolation cracks open and you realize you are not alone. Comprehensive psychological assessments are about connection with self — finally understanding why certain things have always been harder, finally having language for something you have been living without words for.
And those connections change things. The parent who finally understands their child. The adult who stops wondering why and starts knowing. The spouse who finds language for something they could never quite name. The person who walked into a group feeling alone and walked out feeling found. Connection — with yourself and with others — does not stay contained. It goes home with people. It changes how they show up in relationships, in classrooms, in workplaces, in families.
Both services. One belief: that connection — to yourself and to others — is the foundation of everything.
That is what Centered Connections is about.
That same year my health required my attention in a way I could not ignore. I had to pause. Life throws curveballs. The best laid plans do not always unfold the way we imagine. But the need did not go away. And when I was ready, neither had the vision.
Centered Connections is launching now — and I could not be more ready. What started as a vision in 2022 is becoming real in 2026, and that journey only deepened my conviction that this needed to exist. Some things are worth waiting for. Some things are worth coming back to. This is both.
The Practice Behind the Practice
My role has evolved over the years — I stepped back from direct client care to focus on building and leading, but I remain clinically connected through consultation and the work I do alongside our team every day.
That means staying close to every part of how Centered Mind Counseling Services and Centered Connections operate — working alongside our leadership team on everything from program development to provider support to the systems that keep care safe and consistent. Because the foundation of a practice is never invisible. It shows up in every session, with every client.
Staying connected to our team and this community is something I am intentional about. With a hybrid model that spans our Issaquah and Sammamish offices and providers working remotely, connection does not happen automatically. You have to choose it. We have our own employee engagement app — our version of a team Facebook — where we share updates, celebrate milestones, and stay connected day to day. And then there are the moments that remind us we are more than a team on a screen. Our summer party at Pine Lake Park. Bowling nights at Lucky Strike. An evening at Top Golf. In person, together, because that is how culture stays alive.
Here is why this matters to you: when the people providing your care are not alone — when they have consultation, supervision, and a team that genuinely supports them — they can be fully present with you. And in this work, presence is everything.
I could not do any of this without the people who show up alongside me. When I think about what I started in 2015 — a small group practice, a couple of providers, a belief — and look at what Centered Mind Counseling Services has grown into today, I am genuinely in awe. Two of our leaders have been here since the very beginning, growing into roles I could not have imagined for them then. Team members who have stretched, taken on new responsibilities, brought ideas and insights I never would have had on my own. That kind of growth — in people, in a practice, in a community — is what I am most proud of. It is what makes all of it worth it.
On a Personal Note
I love the Pacific Northwest — all of it, not just the summers. The green, the mountains, the rain, the trails, the lakes, the Sound, the Oregon Coast. There is a beauty to it that never gets old. And when the sun comes out and everyone comes out too — it is absolutely stunning. I also love spending time in Austin and the Texas Hill Country — lake time, warm sunshine, a completely different landscape.
Outside of work I enjoy hiking, kayaking, baking, and creating fancy cakes and desserts. I love a good project — decorating a room, refreshing a space, including the occasional CMCS office. My twin daughters are young adults now, and spending time with them, family, friends, and our pets is where I recharge. Gratitude is a daily practice — something I actually do, not just something I believe in.
Balance is something I work at. Life has a way of reminding you that it matters. I have experienced some major life challenges and I have come out the other side a deeper, calmer, more understanding, and more intentional person — and to some people’s surprise, a much less anxious one. When I push too hard in one direction I try to notice it and come back to my core values. I cannot show up for others if I am not showing up for myself. That has never changed.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about you.
A Purpose and a Mission
After more than thirty years in this field I believe wholeheartedly in what we do at Centered Mind Counseling Services and Centered Connections. I have seen what happens when people receive the right care at the right time. It can be life changing. People who finally understand themselves. Families who finally understand each other. People who go back into the world differently — into their relationships, their parenting, their work, their communities. Research backs this up. A purpose and a mission I will always feel strongly about.
Credentials
Bachelor of Science in Psychology
Portland State University, 1995Master of Science in Counseling and Human Services
University of Idaho, 1999Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
Washington State — LH00006224Licensed Professional Counselor — Supervisor (LPC-S)
Texas — 16548Owner and Director — Centered Mind Counseling Services, since 2015
Founder — Centered Connections, established 2022, launched 2026