Meet Our Staff

Chelsea Buffum (she/her) is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist in the state of Washington. She teaches in the Master’s in Mental Health Counseling program at Heritage. Chelsea received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a Minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from Whitworth University in 2011 and went on to complete her Masters in Mental Health Counseling in 2014 from Central Washington University. She was awarded “Outstanding Clinician” at CWU and is passionate about providing excellent care to clients. She believes that listening and holding space are both essential human practices and also an art forms. She’s been living and working in Valley since 2013, with family ties in Wapato.

Chelsea has been working as a therapist in private practice since 2017, specializing in eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating. Chelsea also served at CWU’s Student Medical and Counseling Clinic for four years as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. In addition, she has experience in residential eating disorder treatment and medical rehabilitation clinics. Chelsea practices from anti-racist, feminist, and fat liberation values. Known jokingly as the very serious, feminist, studious hand-raiser in class, Chelsea has learned to lighten up over the years while also loving and maintaining academic rigor.

Outside of teaching and therapy, Chelsea loves to lift heavy weights, hike, ski, and (badly) sing karaoke. She and her husband Joel live in Terrace Heights with their dog.