As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice it’s my education, professional experience and dedication to those that I serve that encourages me to continue to provide the type of personal, quality, down-to-earth and relavant counseling that my clients deserve. For more than 20 years I have had the privilege and opportunity to work with a wide range of populations, diagnoses and circumstances. As part of my undergraduate degree, I completed a six month internship with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. My internship with Vocational Rehab allowed me to work with adults faced with emotional and physical limitations that hindered their ability to obtain and maintain successful employment. Shortly after graduating from college, I continued my work in supportive employment serving individuals with developmental disabilities. During this period I also worked part-time in a group home setting with the same population gaining experience in addressing their individual behavioral needs in the home and community. My direct experience in supportive employment led me to work with a larger mental health center in the role of a case manager with adults in need of gaining and maintaining employment. As a case manager I provided ongoing case management services to adult individuals with mental illness, developed and facilitated a job preparation group, and assisted these individuals with referrals to supported employment programs and the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. I took advantage of an opportunity to continue to build on my experiences in the social work field and return to school to begin work on my Masters Degree. I later joined an agency that served children in residential, foster care and their own homes. I was employed initially in the role of a case manager and provided on-going case management and 24 hour on-call crisis intervention services to children enrolled in their foster care program. As part of my practicum and continuing after graduation with my Masters, I provided individual, family and group therapy to children, adolescents and their adult parents in a home-based setting. This program primarily served juvenile offenders and their families through the Juvenile Probation Department. My enjoyment of working with not only juveniles and their families, but individuals across all ages led to a period of nine and a half years that I provided therapeutic counseling services to children, adolescents and adults at a local community mental health center. My experiences ranged from managing and directing a partial hospitalization program, to crisis intervention and assessment of all ages through a partnership with the regional hospital. During this period, my main mode of treatment was through providing out-patient individual and family therapy to children, adolescents and adults. In October of 2008 I started my own private practice “Choices in Counseling”. My interest in private practice was driven by increased limitations and constraints in providing services to clients within the mental health center environment. It is my belief that by operating under a private practice model, I am better able to offer more individualized, comprehensive, quality services to my clients.