Women To Watch Awards 2026 honors Dr. Curtesia Plunkett

Dr. Curtesia Plunkett, affectionately known as Dr. C, is a Licensed Counseling and Forensic Psychologist based in Austin, Texas. Dr. C is not a “typical” mental health practitioner. She practices through the lens of being a full human living a real, complex life alongside her clients. She remains humbled by every opportunity to walk with others through their healing process.

With over 16 years of experience, Dr. C has provided individual and group counseling, family and couples therapy, crisis intervention, outreach programming, teaching, and a wide range of assessments. She has worked across the lifespan and in diverse settings such as community group practices, juvenile residential treatment facilities, prisons, college counseling centers, and community mental health clinics. She specializes in working with fellow mental health professionals — often referring to herself as a “healer of healers” — as well as individuals within the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Dr. C intentionally utilizes herself as an active tool in the therapy space, ensuring that those she serves feel genuinely seen, heard, and understood.

In October 2025, Dr. C established Shifting In Purpose Psychotherapy & Holistic Wellness, PLLC (SIPP Holistic Wellness) as an extension of her calling and life’s work. SIPP was created as more than a private practice — it was intentionally designed as a sanctuary of belonging. A space where individuals, particularly those from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, can breathe without judgment and feel safe, seen, supported, and spiritually grounded.

The mission of SIPP Holistic Wellness is to provide integrative, culturally responsive, and spiritually affirming mental health care that treats the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. Rooted in agape love, SIPP exists to help individuals reconnect with their inherent worth, reclaim their voice, and move through life with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Through psychotherapy, somatic practices, mindfulness, and holistic wellness services, SIPP aims to disrupt generational cycles of trauma while cultivating healing, empowerment, and sustainable transformation.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. C is a Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapist, a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, and a certified sound healer. She is passionate about making yoga and mindfulness accessible to those who may feel disconnected from these practices or unsure of their power. She thoughtfully interweaves somatic and mindfulness-based practices throughout her clinical work to support holistic healing. Dr. C is also a published author, with work featured in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender (2017). She earned her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oklahoma and her Master’s degree in Community Counseling from Oklahoma State University. A proud “Okie” at heart, she has called Texas home for the past decade.

Dr. C is a Finer Woman of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. Most importantly, she is a child of God whose academic excellence is grounded in and reinforced by her relationship with the spiritual realm — including God & her ancestors. She believes deeply in treating the whole person rather than just a collection of symptoms. While spirituality informs her own life, she never imposes her beliefs on clients and respects each individual’s unique worldview and faith tradition.

She considers one of her greatest gifts — and most humbling blessings — to be the ability to sit with someone in the center of their distress, pain, or trauma, and extend a steady hand that reminds them they are not alone. Dr. C believes in humanity’s collective capacity to heal, grow, and thrive — despite life’s inevitable challenges. She firmly believes that healing cannot occur in spaces of judgment — especially self-judgment.

Outside of her professional life, Dr. C enjoys spending time with her fur baby, Cobi, singing to whatever “mood music” the day brings, brunching with friends, traveling, hiking, attending music events, exploring artistic spaces, enjoying spoken word, & spending time with loved ones, amongst other things. Dr. C lives by the motto: I see you. I hear you. I AM you.