Kim Vander Griend, AM, LCSW is a strengths-based, client-centered psychotherapist who focuses on partnering with clients while moving at their own pace. Her collaborative style utilizes an integrative, solution-focused approach where concrete skill development is addressed. Kim’s approach to therapy emphasizes the importance of seeking and creating healthy relationships. She believes strongly in utilizing the therapeutic relationship to explore positive change and growth. Kim draws from family systems, cognitive behavioral, motivational interviewing and psychodynamic theories in her practice.
Kim earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Communications Arts and Sciences from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She earned her Master’s of Arts from The University of Chicago, The School of Social Service Administration. She completed her post-graduate clinical training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Baltimore, Maryland. She also was a Field Consultant and graduate student instructor at The University of Chicago, The School of Social Service Administration.
Christine graduated from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration with a master’s degree in social work, focusing on clinical care and violence prevention. She has significant experience and training in trauma-informed care and anti-oppressive practice, and her work acknowledges the traumatic impact of systemic power and bias.
Christine has experience working with clients across the lifespan, as well as couples and families. With a trauma-informed perspective, Christine’s therapeutic work focuses on difficulties such as lack of self-worth, grief and loss, and relational conflict, as well as anxiety, depression, and difficulties with life adjustments. Christine enjoys supporting her clients in areas such as stress management, self-care, mindfulness, spirituality, emotional intelligence, healthy relationships, communication and setting boundaries.
Christine is known for creating a calm, relaxed environment that enables her clients to experience the safety and acceptance needed to explore their personal goals for growth, as well as the life hurdles that may be getting in the way. She also understands the courage needed to ask for support and respects her clients’ ability to work at a pace that is most helpful to them. Depending on her clients’ needs, Christine is willing to either support clients in developing insight into the impact of past experiences as a means of growth and change or focus primarily on solutions to current difficulties. Clients’ existing strengths and interests are utilized as a framework for continued growth.
Our life has seasons, and sometimes we feel connected, vibrant, and on a path that feels designed for us. Other times we can feel unmoored, stuck, and unsure we are moving in the right direction. Feelings of sadness, anxiety, and disconnection can complicate our efforts to fully engage in what life has offered us. Colt believes the people he works with are experts on their own experience, and have an innate sense of when things aren’t where they want them to be. He uses evidence-based interventions that include exploring and deepening his client’s understanding of their own values, and then using those values to build a life aligned with what is most important to them. Colt believes in moving through therapy shoulder-to-shoulder with his clients, engaging in a process of mutual discovery and collaborating on a path forward. Making the decision to come to therapy can be a hard one, but is often the first step towards overcoming those barriers to getting what you want from life.
Colt has worked for the last eight years in community health settings in a variety of capacities serving individuals struggling with mental health challenges, addiction, issues related to sexual identity, and chronic illnesses including Hepatitis C and HIV. Colt earned his Master of Arts in Social Work at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and received ongoing training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in a post-graduate fellowship. Colt is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.
Hannah provides clinical therapeutic services to individuals and couples. She is warm, compassionate and eager to partner with clients. Hannah uses a strengths-based approach and believes in the power of therapeutic relationships. It is a goal of hers to listen and understand clients and help them learn appropriate coping skills that can help them outside of the therapy session. She understands the courage it takes to ask for help.
Hannah is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She earned her Masters of Arts from The University of Chicago, The School of Social Service Administration, where she was awarded the Brinks Fellowship in Family Support. For over 15 years, she has provided clinical services to individuals, families and couples. Hannah’s areas of expertise include working with individuals or couples impacted by infertility, high-risk pregnancies, grief and loss, parenting challenges, working through life-stage and career transitions, and experiencing depression and anxiety.
Anu is a licensed clinical social worker with 15 years of psychotherapy experience. She received dual master’s degrees in Social Work and Women’s Studies from Loyola University, Chicago. She previously worked as a hospice and palliative care social worker for 7 years at Midwest Palliative and Hospice CareCenter (now Journeycare) where she provided care for individuals and families coping with with terminal and life limiting illnesses. Anu was a therapist at Thrive Counseling Center in Oak Park for 8 years, working with older adults providing at home psychotherapy, and also doing individual and family therapy with adults across the lifespan. There, she started and facilitated a support group for individuals struggling with death, loss and grief. She was one of the co-founders of the agency’s BIPOC group. She currently teaches core courses at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social work. Anu’s previous experiences include running a shelter program and counseling women escaping partner violence.
As a clinician drawing from Family Systems theories, Anu has been utilizing concepts of a person in environment perspective to recognize and incorporate knowledge of systemic “isms.” She sees the therapeutic relationship as a collaboration between the individual and the therapist while exploring and creating supportive systems in the community which continue to aid the client and family in their recovery. She works with clients struggling with chronic mental illnesses and focuses on depression, anxiety, trauma and PTSD, marital and partner dynamics and challenges of individuals on the neurodivergent spectrum. She uses narrative and feminist therapeutic models to recognize intersectional challenges experienced by women, people of color and LGBTQI populations. Her therapeutic style is empathetic yet directive. Anu often utilizes her background in yoga teaching to help clients learn ways in which trauma manifests in the human body and incorporates mindfulness and meditative practices in her work.
Matthew Parsons is a Licensed Social Worker who received his Masters of Arts in Social Work at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, with a clinical focus in trauma. As a relational therapist, he fundamentally believes that healing happens in relationships where we feel safe, supported, and seen. To this end, Matthew above all else strives to cultivate a warm, collaborative, and non-judgemental therapeutic relationship.
Matthew specializes in working with folks struggling with anxiety and mood concerns, processing trauma, and navigating their gender and sexual identities. He also has experience working with people processing the sudden loss of a loved one, dealing with complex medical diagnoses, and helping professionals struggling with compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. Therapy will look different for everyone, but Matthew will seek to partner with you to explore difficult past experiences and current challenges in living as a way to better understand your inner experience. He draws from a range of clinical perspectives to help you slow down and tune into the present moment to increase your ability to cope, while also working with you to make sense of your history so you may write a new story.
Prior to joining LifePath, Matthew worked in the trauma unit at Stroger Hospital providing counseling to victims of gun violence and their families, as well as end-of-life care. Before becoming a therapist, Matthew spent 5 years working in international human rights research focusing on health access across the Middle East. He received his BA from Tufts University in International Relations and Arabic.
Sacha received her Masters’ of Science in Marriage in Family Therapy and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. With five years of established experience, Sacha walks beside her clients through their life journeys. She acknowledges each client’s experiences as their own while providing a systemic perspective to assist them in their process to self-discovery. Sacha has experience guiding clients through life transitions including divorce, stage of life changes, and gender identity and expression. She has worked with individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, stress management difficulties, struggles with self-esteem, and relationship challenges. Sacha often works closely with clients to build skills around communication, healthy boundaries, and interpersonal relationships.
As a systemic therapist she believes healthy relationships are the stepping stools to healing, processing, and understanding not only each other but also ourselves. While utilizing emotion-focused, strategic, and experiential approaches she seeks to create a space for clients to feel safe in their therapeutic process.
Deanna earned her Master of Arts in Social Work at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and a Bachelor’s in Theatre from New York University. Prior to coming to LifePath, Deanna worked in community-based mental health treating violence intervention and prevention, child welfare, crisis intervention, LGBTQ+ identities and their intersections, foster care and adoption, grief and loss, complex trauma, and intensive outpatient treatment.
Deanna believes a person’s identity, values and beliefs guide their path of healing. Therapy can be a way of liberating ourselves from limiting ideas, societal messages, oppression and isolation. Deanna sees the client as the expert in their experience and collaborates with them to develop a space to learn and grow. Her therapeutic approach is both systemic and person-centered with a focus on inherent strengths and resilience. Deanna pulls from relational, attachment, family systems, racial trauma and polyvagal theories while using such modalities as ACT, DBT, CBT, TCI-F and Motivational Interviewing. She also draws, when appropriate, from her own life experiences.
Deanna’s peace comes from walking her dog, cooking, singing, connecting with my community and attending weekly meetings to continue recovery from addiction and oppression.
Samantha (she/her) is a Licensed Social Worker, who became a therapist because she believes that change is always possible, and that humans have an inherent ability to heal and transform when they feel safe, heard, and connected. She understands that sometimes patterns of thinking or difficult emotions feel like they pull us away from living life fully. In session, Samantha works with individuals to identify their strengths, increase self-compassion, and expand their capacity to respond in the face of life’s difficult moments. She’s also a big believer in the power of humor, and encourages her clients to bring their full selves into their work together.
Samantha specializes in working with young adults and adults as they move through life transitions. She has worked with individuals experiencing complex trauma responses, processing grief and loss, working through identity related concerns, and those struggling with self-esteem/body image, suicidal ideation, substance use, and mood and anxiety disorders. Samantha shows up to sessions with compassion, curiosity, honesty, and hope, creating a space to slow down and tune into emotions, beliefs, and responses. While she often works in the present moment through using mindfulness and coping skills to manage immediate needs, she understands the impact our histories have on our sense of self and current challenges. She therefore takes a holistic perspective to treatment, and provides space to challenge societal messages and experiences related to sexism, racism, oppression, and marginalization, and their impact on your mental health.
She earned her Master of Arts in Social Work at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and her Bachelor’s degree in Human Service Studies from Elon University in North Carolina. Prior to coming to LifePath, Samantha worked with college and graduate students at Columbia College of Chicago Counseling Services, with children and adolescents experiencing community violence and trauma, and in the field of community development, where she partnered with a health center in Uganda to conduct human-rights focused HIV/AIDS research.
Paige (she/her) is a Licensed Social Worker passionate about helping individuals increase awareness so they can increase self-compassion, intentionality, and well-being. With a firm belief that healing and growth happen in relationship, she strives to walk alongside clients with curiosity, empathy, cultural humility, and humor.
Paige creates a warm and supportive environment, making space for the messy and the beautiful, the painful and the glorious, the absurd and the mundane. Using a holistic approach, she helps clients process difficult life experiences from the past while also finding ways to live in the present moment. She collaborates with clients to leverage their own strengths, forge their own path to healing, and live more fully into their values. Paige’s clinical interests include perinatal mental health (e.g., postpartum depression and anxiety, infertility); complex and acute trauma; grief and loss; and the intersections of identity, power, and oppression. She also enjoys facilitating support groups, recognizing the unique power of the group to help clients find validation and connection.
Paige earned her Master of Arts in Social Work from the University of Chicago, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Prior to joining LifePath, she worked with adolescents, young adults, and families navigating challenges related to depression, neurodiversity, suicidal ideation, relational conflict, gender and sexuality, and so on. Her clinical approach is informed by mindfulness, Internal Family Systems, Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Queer Theory, and trauma-informed approaches.
Each person is the expert of their own experience. Believing someone and accepting them as a human being worthy of love is the foundation for a successful therapeutic relationship. Kiernan deeply believes that when this supportive environment is provided, a person can begin to more fully listen to and trust in their own experience. This promotes greater self-awareness, and the ability to care for oneself. Kiernan has worked with trauma survivors and is committed to trauma-informed work.
Therapy is not just about addressing the unpleasant and troubling though; it also involves clarifying values and determining what gives life meaning. In addition to this, Kiernan aims to help people discover what underlying stories they tell about themselves and explore alternative narratives of self.
Kiernan completed his Bachelors of Social Work at Goshen College and his masters from The University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. He previously worked as a substance abuse counselor in Virginia, and documented Human Rights abuses in Southern Mexico for two years.
In addition to a Person-Centered approach, Kiernan uses an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy framework for addressing human suffering. Distressing thoughts and feelings are an inevitable part of life; understandably we often try to suppress these painful experiences. He uses mindfulness and other experiential exercises with his clients to change how they interact with their thoughts and feelings.
Other approaches used in therapy include Motivational Interviewing and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. He works with individuals living with anxiety, trauma, mood disorders, problematic substance use, and more.
Maddie (she/her) is a Licensed Social Worker who is passionate about creating a space for healing and growth through empathy, warmth, and vulnerability. She understands the difficulties of sharing the deepest parts of ourselves with others and strives to make therapy inclusive, safe, and accessible. She does this by utilizing a strong therapeutic relationship to partner with clients, whom she views as the experts in their own lives. Her style draws from cognitive behavioral models, trauma-informed practice, psychodynamic theories, and strengths-based practice.
Maddie has worked with people of all ages experiencing sudden life changes, interpersonal conflicts, and those struggling with suicidal ideation, identity-related concerns, and mood and anxiety disorders. Maddie is especially dedicated to serving those who have been impacted by trauma. She believes in empowering others by making it possible to “speak the unspeakable” and considers it a great honor to be a part of someone’s healing journey. She engages with each client’s unique challenges by first promoting safety and healthy coping and then with an approach that focuses on understanding how each aspect of our lives, from our pasts to our current environments, impacts who we are today. This also means that she is devoted to promoting anti-oppressive practice, which includes acknowledging and challenging sexism, racism, homophobia and all forms of marginalization in and out of session.
She earned her Master of Arts in Social Work from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from DePaul University. During her studies, Maddie completed an internship with the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry as a member of the Trauma Treatment Services team. She has also worked with children, adolescents and their families in both school and research settings.
Outside of her work, Maddie is also a proud Minnesota native, an avid dancer, and often caught with her nose in a book.
Jack Lionberger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who earned his master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice where he was a member of a program of study that focused on the newest forms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Jack enjoys working with both individuals and couples, and draws most from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Jack takes an approach that looks beyond diagnoses, and explores the larger patterns and processes of behavior and thinking that get in the way of people’s lives and relationships. He believes that challenges like conflict, uncertainty, worry, sadness, anger, grief, loss and more, are the natural outcomes of being alive, and often contain important information for what matters most to us.
Jack has extensive clinical experience in community mental health, inpatient psychiatry, and working with frontline and healthcare workers. He has a proven record of helping people who experience acute anxiety, OCD, suicidality, PTSD, moral injury, addiction, interpersonal difficulties, chronic pain, death and grief, and more. Beyond any one theory, Jack believes that therapy should focus on a client’s values and strengths to help them get closer to a life that is authentic and purpose driven; he makes it his mission to show up to every therapy session with empathy, authenticity, care, and humor.
In his personal life Jack enjoys simple pleasures like cooking, baking, good coffee, playing bass, time with his dog, eating pizza, and beach days.
Payton is a Licensed Professional Counselor who is passionate about providing care for individuals experiencing a wide variety of challenges. Payton creates a safe place for clients to feel valued, heard, and empowered helping to foster personal
growth. As a relational-cultural therapist, Payton helps clients gain insight into how relationships impact life experiences.
We face many challenges and stages in life’s journey and navigating through its different phases can sometimes be a difficult process. The beauty of therapy is that it will look different for each person and will be tailored to specific needs. Payton also specializes in facilitating facilitates sustainable empowerment and personal growth for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community.
Payton has had substantial experience working with adolescents and young adults navigating anxiety, life challenges, and substance abuse. Payton focuses on exploring values to aid clients in uncovering their life compass directing them towards a more fulfilled and purposeful life. Her therapeutic approaches are centered around Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Client-Centered, Solution-Focused, and trauma-informed care.
Payton earned her Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology from The Chicago School of
Professional Psychology and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminal Justice from the University of Northern Colorado. Payton gained invaluable experience as an intern in the Weld County, Colorado Public Defender’s Office and at Hartgrove Hospital where she provided counseling services to a myriad of individuals experiencing life transitions, anxiety, depression, interpersonal relationship conflict, gender-identity questions, and trauma history.
Outside of work, Payton enjoys reading, pilates, yoga, hiking, traveling, and good food!
Anya (she/her) believes that every individual is unique, and that starting therapy can be difficult no matter your age. A person’s mental health is very important, and while it can be burdensome to start the process of improving it, reaching out for support is an important first step. Anya likes to spend the first session getting to know her clients and their goals. Then, through building- trust, Anya’s objective is to co-create an environment where clients feel open, relaxed, and comfortable. Therapy can be challenging, and at times it may be tempting to give up, but Anya is committed to supporting clients through all ebbs and flows of the journey to ensure clients get the most out of each session.
Anya received her Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago where she specialized in mental health and gerontology. Anya has spent the last five years at the University of Chicago Medical Center working on the adult inpatient side, while managing private practice on the side. When working with clients, Anya likes to use a variety of therapeutic models. Not everyone benefits from the same standard practice, so she aims to customize her approach. Her primary models of practice are psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral therapy, strength-based, motivational interviewing, and acceptance and commitment theory. She believes that in order to change a person’s thought patterns (CBT) you need to look at their past and how these patterns started (psychodynamic). Anya has experience with anxiety, grief and loss, depression, adjustment to chronic illness, familial dementia stressors, and sibling relationships.
Anya enjoys spending time with her 80lb rescue dog Roland, watching sports, completing jigsaw puzzles and reading.
As your therapist, Lauren (she/her) feels honored to be a part of your story. Whether you are searching for meaning, clarity, increased fulfillment, or relief from specific symptoms or stressors, Lauren considers it a privilege to support you in the process of healing and growth.
Above all, Lauren privileges authenticity, transparency, and a sense of agency in the therapeutic process. She is deeply passionate about challenging normative and structurally reinforced assumptions about therapy, namely that it involves a relationship between a “sick” person and a “healthy” one. Lauren views herself not as an expert- someone tasked with helping to “fix” something wrong- but as a co-creator of relational space that holds potential for new ways of being and understanding ourselves, others, the world, and our experiences within it. Her clinical style and approach has been described as warm, genuine, direct, and actively engaged.
Lauren believes in the value of deepened awareness of our experience through exploration of both conscious and unconscious processes, and views the therapeutic relationship as a primary tool for such exploration. Increased insight into the origins and maintenance of patterns contributing to distress, discontentment, conflict, or a sense of stagnancy can help illuminate paths towards living with greater satisfaction and vitalization.
Lauren is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a background in critical social science theory. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago Social of Social Service Administration and holds a bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Dickinson College. Lauren has extensive training in relational psychodynamic theory and practice and enjoys incorporating components of behavioral therapies (primarily Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) when useful and appropriate. Lauren has years experience working in higher levels of care, though her primary interest is in longer-term therapeutic work. She particularly enjoys working with young adults and adults dealing with depression, anxiety, relational stressors and life transitions, traumatic experience, self-injurious behaviors, and substance misuse, as well as folks who are new to the process of therapy.
Amy is a Clinical Social Work Intern who is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in Social Work at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She is completing her internship practicum at LifePath Therapy Associates, where she assists the Intake Team in matching clients with therapists, co-leads a therapy group session, and leads a small individual therapy caseload.
Amy’s approach to therapy is holistic and eclectic, drawing from humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and psychodynamic models. She is committed to anti-oppressive practice and believes in challenging all forms of systemic injustice. Above all, she strives to create a therapeutic environment that centers empathy, dignity, and growth. Amy is particularly interested in working with young adults and clients with chronic mood and anxiety disorders.
Amy received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Macalester College, where she concentrated in Critical Theory and was particularly interested in the study of ethics, existentialism, and postmodernism. In her free time, she enjoys singing, playing the ukulele, and exploring Chicago neighborhoods and parks by foot.
Samantha leads our Intake Team at LifePath Therapy Associates and she is frequently the first person our clients and referrals sources will talk with as they begin their journey at LifePath. She is genuinely interested in connecting with new and existing clients and fostering open and collaborative communication to best support the work and relationship between client and clinician. Even before joining LifePath Therapy Associates, Samantha’s administrative and client relations experience has been rooted in holistic and integrative healthcare.
Samantha received her Bachelor’s degree in Comparative and World Literature from San Francisco State University. She is currently a graduate student in Counselor Education for Clinical Mental Health at Northeastern Illinois University. She is also a licensed yoga instructor with a special interest in mindful movement, meditation, and trauma informed practices.
Samantha (she/ her) has joined Life Path as an Intake/ Billing Specialist. She majored in psychology and received a bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in 2016. Since then, she has been working in mental health in various intake, administrative and patient care roles. As a mental health advocate, she believes that her life’s purpose is to help others and she is extremely passionate about connecting individuals to appropriate mental health care and resources. Inclusivity and acceptance are her priorities and she believes in creating safe spaces for all people.
Being raised on the southside of Chicago, she has a lot of love for the city and in her spare times enjoys exploring different neighborhoods and restaurants. She also enjoys time spent outdoors at local parks with her dogs and strongly values quality time with her family and close friends.
