About Anna Long-Stokes, LCSW

I’m a therapist—but not the kind who stares at you blankly and asks, “How does that make you feel?” on repeat.

My path here wasn’t linear. (Let’s be honest—whose is?)

The (Gentle, Wild) Backstory

I earned my Master’s in Social Work and spent five years in community mental health. And while I cared deeply about the work, I found myself burnt out, disillusioned, and frankly… bored. The model felt rigid. My soul felt squished. And then my grandmother passed away—and with her, something in me opened.

Long-buried psychic abilities from childhood came roaring back. Suddenly, I was asking questions like:
“What is my path?” “Do past lives affect this one?” “Why is no one in the mental health field talking about this stuff?”

Spoiler alert: at the time, they weren’t.

So I walked away.

From Therapist to 7-Figure Beauty CEO (and Back Again)

I built and ran a successful 7-figure beauty business. By day, I was all strategy and branding. By night, I was studying Eastern medicine, energy work, and psychic development while contemplating the deeper mysteries of being human.

Eventually, I began helping other empaths and intuitives step into their own gifts—and realized that my gift was blending these two worlds: the practical and the energetic, the grounded and the expansive.

When I sold my company, I went through a full-blown identity crisis (10/10 recommend if you want to completely re-evaluate your life). That’s when I felt the pull back to mental health.

And—surprise—the field had changed.

People were talking about the nervous system. About energy. About how trauma lives in the body and how healing doesn’t have to be all talk, all the time.

Now, I Do It My Way

I started The Gentle ReRoute as a therapy practice that honors the full human experience:
Mind. Body. Spirit. And yes, the weird, mystical, hard-to-explain stuff too.

Today I split my time between:

• Working with therapy clients in Oregon (online)

• Teaching empaths and intuitives how to develop their gifts over in my other business

• Drinking strong tea and wondering how we’re all just walking nervous systems with feelings and iPhones