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.
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.
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.
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.
