Astra Barkley has 20 years of experience with children, adults, and families in nonprofit sector, school setting, state agencies, and private practice. Her career spans from foster and adoptive case work, working with children with special needs, and marginalized populations in community setting to obtain needed services. She has provided mental health counseling in private sector for more than 8 years, providing counseling for depression, attention deficit disorders, anxiety, adjustment disorders, stress related issues, and more. In addition, Astra is employed at Troy University where she is an adjunct instructor and teaches bachelor level psychology classes. She is also a graduate teaching assistant at Auburn University where she is currently enrolled in counselor education and supervision doctoral program. She is a foster and adoptive parent, in addition to an advocate for foster and adoptive parents and foster children. She is trained in Trauma Informed Partnering of Safety and Permanence-Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting and provides this training to interested foster and adoptive parents. She utilizes an integrative approach to counseling, this allows her to individualize each clients treatment plan.