Terry's doctorate in Counselor Education is from the University of North Texas, where she specialized in working with children and families. During her internship there, Terry developed Adlerian play therapy, an approach to counseling children that combines the ideas and techniques of Individual Psychology with the strategies of play therapy. Before returning to graduate school to pursue her doctorate, Terry worked as a special education teacher — teaching learning disabled children and children who had been diagnosed as emotionally disturbed/behavior disordered. She has two masters' degrees — one from the University of Texas at Dallas in Special Education and one from Colorado College in Elementary Teaching.