The Loft, 8145 Ardrey Kell Road, Suite 206, Charlotte, NC (2025)

08/06/2025

Meet Mr. Joe

The visionary of The Loft, Joe Walker is a dedicated mental health counselor with a passion for helping kids, teens, and young adults as they navigate the challenges of a modernized and complex world. A former lawyer, business executive, and educator, Joe blends unique life experiences with his compassionate approach to therapy. Joe utilizes evidence-based therapeutic methodologies, including Child-Centered Play Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Narrative Therapy, to meet the individual needs of each client. With six kids of his own, Joe demonstrates empathy for young people and parents alike.

Joe is always looking for ways to do more, help more, make more impact. His curiosity of neurofeedback has led to an exciting development at The Loft. His wife Jamie is developing the NeuroNook, more details coming soon!

Jamie Walker is a passionate strategist and visionary with a unique appetite for building ideas into businesses to impact others for good. A former educator, successful entrepreneur, and coach, Jamie uses the art of story-telling to break complex subjects into ones that make sense.

Husband and wife, parents, and passionate advocates for mental wellness and community healing. These two are finding ways to make more impact in their community. Follow along!

08/06/2025

Welcome to The Loft
📍 8145 Ardrey Kell Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277
The Fountains, Suite 206

At The Loft, we understand the unique challenges young minds and families face today. Our mission is to walk beside you through life’s hardest moments—with compassion, care, and clinically grounded support.

We’ve created a safe, welcoming space where kids, teens, young adults, and parents can find meaningful connection, personalized guidance, and lasting hope.

🛋️ What we offer:
• Play Therapy
• Talk Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Parent Coaching

All services are confidential and tailored to meet each client’s unique needs—because no two journeys look the same.

We believe healing happens in the community.

And at The Loft, no one walks alone.

03/14/2024

Parents, please listen to your teens.

Being a teenager can be tough, but it shouldn’t feel hopeless. Check symptoms, and find out what you can do if you think your teen might have depression.

01/02/2024

A fun 2024 activity with kids and teens! Draw and discuss something we’re proud of, excited for, scared of, and nervous about. And save space to draw your perfect day!

I promise I’m a better counselor than I am an artist …

12/11/2023

For all my clients preparing for exams … accept the healthy stress as motivation to perform with maximum effort; but, when the stress tips to unhealthy, and you feel tense, restless, or overwhelmed, please remember that you are so much more than a grade on a test.

None of you have ever asked me for my GPA … or where I went to school, what degrees I have, or which clubs I was in … but you trust me with your mental health. Exams are only one small event in a long life of experiences and adventures.

Control the controllable.

12/06/2023

Responding to bullies.

My 8th grader has faced his share of bullying this year. On a drive to my daughters’ basketball game yesterday, we actually worked on some “comebacks” … ways to respond that would empower him in uncomfortable situations. I don’t want him to be a punching bag with bottled up emotions. That’s a recipe for a volcanic explosion, and I certainly don’t want a physical altercation. I also don’t want him to lose his sense of respect for others. One of his strongest attributes is kindness; he genuinely loves people. And not all people are bullies.

My phone, of course, was listening.

If you have a young person who is being bullied, I highly recommend the article linked below, written by Dr. Suzanne Bender, on the Art of the Comeback.

I think she’s onto something. Bullies want to feel powerful. Teaching some classic comebacks can create a boomerang effect that leads to deescalation.

“Why do you care?”

“So what?”

“What’s your point? “

“That’s your best point?”

“What’s your problem?”

“Who says that? Seriously, Who does that?”

"I don't comment on your ____.”

I’m going to use this article tonight to further the discussion we started yesterday. More tools for my son’s toolbox.

Read the article here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/lets-talk/202312/teaching-kids-the-art-of-the-comeback?amp

12/01/2023

Self-awareness … do you know you?

One trend I’m seeing in the room is our inability to identify things we like about ourselves. To some, the question is paralyzing … literally. The reason? In a world of social comparisons and curated self-promotion, we forget to be truly introspective. In our rush to project what we think others want to see, we lose sight of our authentic self.

Test this at home. Create a short list of attributes that make you great. Are you kind? Funny? Caring? Dependable? Strong? Can’t think of anything? Use a list of positive character attributes. There are dozens on the internet.

Ask your kids to do the same. If they’re willing, make a list describing each other. There’s lots of ways to make this fun! And it’s important to recenter ourselves … it’s hard to formulate strong, lasting, healthy relationships with others when we don’t yet know ourselves.

11/27/2023

Failure.

The courage to take risks requires the ability to process failure. Healthy risks, and the ability to learn from our shortcomings, is something that should be practiced through our formative years. It’s how we build resilience, develop coping mechanisms, and ultimately improve our self-confidence.

- Encourage young people to try new things by acknowledging that the experience may come with ups and downs

- Model the willingness to try new things and our acceptance of failure as a learning opportunity

- Allow healthy emotions to flow after a perceived failure so a young person can begin processing the experience

- Emphasize experience and effort over outcome

In my opinion, the last one is the most important. In a society obsessed with titles and trophies, it’s our diverse experiences that ultimately define us.

11/20/2023

Sports parent hack.

Do you have an athlete who is hard on themselves after a game, match, or performance? Hearing the negative self-talk?

1. Give space for feelings. When we have a bad day at work, the last thing we need is someone telling us to “forget about it” or to “cheer up”. Listen quietly, calmly, and with real intent to learn. This is simple, but not necessarily easy!

2. Acknowledge and validate feelings … e.g., “you’re frustrated.” This makes us feel seen.

3. After your athlete has flushed the initial emotions, ask reflective questions:

- Is there another explanation for your performance?

- What would you tell a friend or teammate right now?

- How will you respond?

- How will you prepare for next time?

As humans, we don’t always want to be “fixed”. Sometimes we just want to be heard and understood … with some support, we can often do the fixing on our own.

11/17/2023

Parent point.

Half … yes, half … of Americans aged 18-24 report symptoms of anxiety or depression (NIH). But the feels start much earlier. Kids and adolescents often lack the language to describe their feelings or the strength to address them.

- Look for behavioral changes or avoidance
- Talk openly about stress, including the good kind
- Be mindful of your expectations for your child
- Talk openly about social media, pros and cons
- Seek help … young people like having a person

Being a young person is hard. So is parenting. None of us have to do it alone!

11/16/2023

Life hack.

Science shows that intentionally adding value to others improves your own emotional well-being.

The BIG JOY Project, in reviewing data from over 7,000 study participants, has found that engaging in daily “micro-acts” results in a 25% increase in happiness over a week. Yes please!

- Send a note to a friend for no reason
- Call a loved one
- Buy a stranger coffee

Be intentional. Model small acts of service. You win, they win, all the little people who are watching win!

11/15/2023

Parenting hack.

Developing social skills is harder in a digital world. Starting conversations with strangers can paralyze a young person.

- Teach the reporter’s questions: who, why, what, where, when, and how

- Using these questions, have your child initiate conversations with you, which is a safe place to practice and fail (encouraged in the learning phases)

- Remind young people that conversations are like exploration … if we listen with curiosity, we don’t have to know anything about the topic

Seems simple? Agreed! And it’s a fantastic start to building a social toolbox.

The Loft

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