Kenzi Kostel

Kenzi Kostel is a Licensed Professional Counselor who values warmth, authenticity, and genuine connection in her work with children, adolescents, and emerging adults. Her approach centers on meeting clients with openness and understanding as they navigate life’s challenges and transitions.

Kenzi earned her B.S. in Psychology from Texas Christian University and completed her M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a child & adolescent concentration at Southern Methodist University. Her clinical foundation began at SMU’s Center for Family Counseling, where she worked with children, teens, young adults, and families across play, activity, talk, and sand tray modalities. These formative experiences strengthened her belief in the power of attuned relationships, emotional safety, and developmentally tailored interventions.

She later completed advanced training at Children’s Health in the high-acuity Day Treatment Unit, providing individual, group, family, and milieu therapy for children and adolescents. This setting deepened her understanding of complex behavior, crisis stabilization, emotional regulation, and the critical role families play in supporting sustainable change.

Kenzi is trained in Child-Centered Play Therapy, sand tray work, expressive arts, activity therapy, and filial therapy. She integrates these approaches with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and parent training, allowing her to create developmentally appropriate, collaborative, and personalized treatment plans that honor each client’s needs and strengths.

Before joining the clinical team at Heritage, Kenzi worked with Carson Consulting, a firm specializing in executive and corporate assessments. Her experience administering psychometric evaluations and conducting behavioral assessments enriches her ability to conceptualize clients holistically and identify meaningful patterns that inform treatment.

Kenzi supports clients navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, peer group changes, high-pressure environments, ADHD, emotional regulation challenges, perfectionism, identity development, life transitions, and complex family dynamics. She is especially passionate about walking alongside children, teens, late adolescents, and emerging adults as they navigate pivotal developmental seasons. Her enthusiasm is often described as uplifting and contagious—helping clients and families feel hopeful, motivated, and deeply supported as they approach breakthrough moments.

Kenzi offers a safe, nonjudgmental, and attuned space where clients feel seen and empowered. She is committed to helping families navigate change, strengthen communication, and build resilience with intention and clarity.

Outside the counseling room, Kenzi enjoys walking around White Rock Lake, trying new restaurants and local coffee shops, and cheering on the Frogs and Hogs with her fiancé.

“Enter into children’s play, and you will find the place where their minds, hearts, and souls meet.” — Virginia Axline

"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg