Your Journey Therapy, PLLC

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the midwest. I am licensed in Illinois and North Dakota, my licenses are pending in Mississippi and Virginia. As an LCSW I focus on providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). I will meet you where you are in your therapeutic journey, which helps you take control of the session by working with me to create a treatment plan that is unique to your therapeutic wants and needs. I am an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and appreciate learning more about each client's unique individuality. I am a strong believer in psycho-education. I believe that the more a client can learn about their mental health, the better they can help themselves between therapy sessions and once therapy has concluded. I also enjoy incorporating art into my sessions (I am not an art therapist, but I love using art). In these exercises, you won't need anything special; you can use what you have on hand whether you're logging in from home or joining a session while you're on break at work. I began providing video therapy during the pandemic and grew to see its immense value. Video therapy is versatile and offers a face-to-face experience, even if it's through a screen. While I see all ages, I feel my calling is with the teen and young adult population. Today's teens/young adults are dealing with more than teens in prior decades. The addition of cell phones and social media has had an extreme impact on teens/young adults. In the past, home has generally been a safe place from school and the community. With the development of technology and the internet, home is no longer safe thanks to cyberbullying. Teens/young adults also spend more time isolating in their home. My goal is to work with teens/young adults to build their self-worth and strengths to build a foundation to conquer any obstacles they are faced with. I chose to give teens/young adults control in their sessions in a world they have little control in. I am the wife of a retired fire-fighter/paramedic. While I had no interest in running into fires, I was excited for the adrenaline rush of being a paramedic for the first three years of our marriage. As our family grew there was only room for one of us to continue in that field so I focused on being a mom working during school hours. We now have four children (two of which are boy/girl twins) and two dogs who we treat like family. My goal is to one day have a certified therapy dog. After 20 years of working as an office manager for a dental office I chose to return to college and finish my BA degree in Human Services, followed by my MSW and finishing with being a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). I did my internship on the adolescent wing of an inpatient behavioral health hospital. I worked 1:1 with teens, led family sessions and teen group sessions. In addition, I worked in the emergency room doing intake assessments for inpatient hospitalization. I worked in childwelfare’s intact family services division for three years before going into private practice. After working in private practice and a short stint as a Forensic Social Worker at a local mental health hospital, I started my own private practice in January of 2023.