Jennifer is highly motivated to join clients throughout their therapy experience. She understands that people benefit from having an objective party who truly hears them, whether they are needing someone safe to vent too or looking for support while making adjustments and changes in their lives. She sees therapy as a wonderful journey of self-awareness and a means to forming a deeper, more loving, and noncritical relationship with oneself. Jennifer is present to actively listen, provide support, and help each person uncover the strength and resiliency that they already have within them. Jennifer’s goal is that clients leave each session feeling slightly better than when they came in.
Jennifer’s educational background started at Middle Tennessee State University, where she graduated in 2009 with her bachelors in social work with a minor in communication disorders. She went on to graduate in 2016, from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, with a masters in social work and certification in veterinary social work, focused on the human-animal bond, compassion fatigue and conflict management, the link between human and animal violence, animal assisted interventions, and animal related grief and bereavement). Jennifer is currently working towards her LCSW credentials and under supervision with Valeria Lerma, LCSW-S.
Jennifer comes to our clinic having experience working at both the micro and macro level fields of social work practice. Having worked 6 years in various medical settings, including local psychiatric and behavioral healthcare hospitals, hospice, and skilled nursing and rehabilitation practices. she values the importance of the continuum of care, patient advocacy, supporting military veterans, and patient education on state and federal benefits. Jennifer also has experience working with underserved children in the schools and in refugee/asylee families.
As a social worker, Jennifer has unique training in how the person is shaped by their environment with genetic influencers. She focuses on the person’s strengths, resources, support system, and beliefs to help them set obtainable goals and find realistic solutions to their concerns that will work for them. She utilizes the therapeutic modalities of CBT, DBT, ACT, Gestalt, Solution Focused, and Motivational Therapy. Sessions target the following: distress tolerance, boundary setting, emotional regulation, mindfulness, problem solving, effective communication styles, work-life balance, healthy relationships, and intentional living. Jennifer works with presenting concerns of self-esteem, compassion fatigue, caregiver stress and burnout, grief and bereavement, overcoming narcissistic abuse, supportive parenting, and life transitions along the continuum.