Dr. Baldwin is an in-network provider with: BCBS (including Blue Home/UNC Health Alliance), AETNA (including State Health Plan), CIGNA/Evernorth and UNITED/Optum.

Elissa Baldwin, PhD, LCSW (she/her) has been practicing for the past 25 years in Durham, NC, and is the owner of Potential Space. She works with adults in individual psychotherapy, and provides treatment for adolescents, children, and their parents/caregivers. She also offers psychodynamic supervision and consultation to local clinicians.

Across her work, Dr. Baldwin is committed to affirming each person’s identities and lived experience, including LGBTQIA+ communities, neurodivergence, and those navigating cultural or systemic trauma. She draws on psychodynamic, attachment, and developmental frameworks, integrating her background in art and design with psychotherapy through the use of creative and reflective processes.  Her work is often enriched by visual thinking, creative process, and a sensitivity to symbolic communication—across the lifespan.

Dr. Baldwin earned her BLA from the NC State School of Design, her MSW from UNC–Chapel Hill, and her PhD from the Smith College School for Social Work. She completed post-graduate training in child/adolescent and adult psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas (PCC), where she now serves as Curriculum Chair and faculty member. She also helps to facilitate an ongoing study group on Race & Othering in Psychoanalysis and has been involved with the PCC’s Anti-Racism Task Force.

Dr. Baldwin is trained as a Circle of Security Parent Facilitator and holds a certificate in Advanced Clinical Supervision from Smith College. She has taught or advised at the PCC, the Smith College School for Social Work, and the UNC School of Social Work. She is a member of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (ACP), where she recently served on the Board as a Councilor.