Valerie’s professional experience has been a mixture of individual therapy addressing depression, anxiety, mood disorders, grief, trauma, relational struggles and substance abuse, and group therapy ranging from teaching life skills to adolescents, as well as groups with adults dealing with a variety of issues including depression, anxiety, anger management and co-existing mental health/substance abuse issues.

 

After earning her Bachelors in Social Work at Bethel University in St Paul, Minnesota, Valerie spent about 10 years working with adolescents and young adults in a variety of settings. Eventually she returned to earn her Masters in Social Work at The University of Georgia and then worked in outpatient community mental health for a number of years.

In 2014 her  family returned to Georgia after living in Boston for five years and she has been with the Athens DBT Center ever since.

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Valerie was trained in DBT by Behavioral Tech of Seattle. In addition she is the team leader of consultation team at Athens DBT Center.

Valerie is also trained in the DBT protocol of Prolonged Exposure therapy to treat trauma for DBT clients.

In 2017, Valerie received additional training in DBT skills from Marsha Linehan

 

Additional areas of training and interest are trauma sensitive yoga, somatic approaches to trauma, and spiritual abuse.