Department of CPCFT Newsletter - Spring 2016

Marriage and Family Therapy Program

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, COUNSELING AND FAMILY THERAPY

NEWS

Spring 2016

Alumni Spotlights

Mi Ki Leong graduated with her M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) from St. Cloud State University in 2014. Mi Ki has been working as a Mental Health Practitioner at David Hoy & Associates in Golden Valley after completing her internship Mi Ki Leong M.S at the agency. She has been providing in-home services and therapy to children and teenagers.

In order to gain more experience in the mental health field, Mi Ki also works for South Metro Human Services in St. Paul. She provided in-home services to adults with severe and persistent mental illness and transitioned to work with adults in various residential support settings in Dakota, Anoka and Ramsey counties.

In order to expand her clinical training and experience, Mi Ki was recently accepted as a volunteer therapist at the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis.

She actively attends MAMFT conferences and was previously a student volunteer at the AAMFT Conference in Milwaukee, WI. Mi Ki has recently passed the national MFT exam and is seeking opportunities to contribute services to the MAMFT board. Being newly married, Mi Ki is looking forward to be fully licensed this summer and grow her career while balancing family life.

Inside this edition

As a 2014 graduate, I am so thankful for the education I received from St. Cloud State University.

Through the education and knowledge of the professors and my supportive cohort, I was able to develop the foundation to how I approach each opportunity in working with clients.

I accepted a full time position two and half years ago at Northern Pines Mental Health Center. Northern Pines is a non-profit community mental health center that provides a full range of services that continues to grow within six counties.

Angie Monson M.S, and family

I currently provide therapeutic services in an elementary school primarily seeing children ages 5-12 for individual therapy. I provide family therapy after school hours and complete risk assessments/crisis interventions as needed. My therapy style is systems based and utilizes an integrative approach to meet my client’s needs. I am looking forward to taking some time this fall to attend trainings to enhance my knowledge and expertise for working with children and families.

My husband Dustin (upcoming 2016 graduate) and I reside in Brainerd.

On July 3, 2015 we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. For the past 5 months, since returning to my position, I have been working towards finding a balance between working full time to meet my client’s needs and my personal life as a wife and first time mother. At times, it has proven to be quite the challenge to juggle work and personal responsibilities. I am anxiously waiting for this summer in order to spend some much needed time in the sun; camping, water sports, spending time on the lake, fishing and just being in the great outdoors.

Alumni Spotlights, Current Students, Professors, Internship Sites, Current Cohorts

Current Student Spotlights

Steven Ringsmuth, 2nd Year

Steven Ringsmuth Stolpman is a second year student in the MFT department and a 2015-16 recipient of the AAMFT’s Minority Fellowship Program award, which supports mental health care access for minorities and youth. From 20092015, Steven worked at the Catholic Charities St. Cloud Children’s Home, an experience that developed his interests in working with youth with trauma, autism spectrum disorder and its effects on families, as well as the importance of training for direct care staff.

Kez Samakabadi, 1st Year

My name is Onneetse Samakabadi (Kez) and I am from Botswana, Africa. I grew up in the city of Gaborone and was raised in a single parent family. I have two sisters and a brother. Because my mother was a single parent, she found that there was strength in acquiring education.

My siblings and I were always encouraged to study as much as we could.

This work experience led him to pursue graduate studies with a particular interest in family systems. He is currently an intern with Caritas, a St. Cloud Catholic Charities mental health clinic, supervised

by Dr. Tobin Del Giudice. He married his life partner Beth in 2008.

They enjoy nature walks, concerts, travel and spending time with family and friends.

In 2011, I received my first degree, a Bachelor’s in English and French at the University of Botswana. Thereafter, I pursued a post-degree diploma in Education with a specialization in English and French.

In 2012, I studied at the South African Theological Seminary where I graduated with an honors degree in Theology.

Driven by a dream to work in a field that helped and cared for people emotionally, physically and mentally, Davis received her undergraduate degree in Pyschology from the University of Minnesota-Morris graduating with high distinction.

I have always wanted to understand and work with people.

Through my degrees, I was able to work with students.

I knew I wanted to work with people to help them do better in their everyday pursuits. These experiences led me to study family therapy. It was during my volunteering as a sex educator in schools that I saw the need for family therapy.

During her time at the university, Davis was active in working with children. She served as the President of Big Friend Little Friend, where she reached out to work with underprivileged children to provide them with positive role models in their lives.

Kelly Davis, 2nd Year

Davis was also a sexual assault and domestic violence advocate through a shelter called Someplace Safe. Through this experience she worked with law enforcement, the legal system and several organziations to help provide support to women and children who had been victimized and left without a home. Her passion is to ensure the mental health of survivors continues to grow.

Davis spent two years working with children at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Minnesota where her passion for children’s mental health issues grew. Her trainings to date include LGBT specific mental health services, managing behavioral issues in children, sexual assult advocacy and domestic violence advocacy.

After an extensive application process, Davis was graciously awarded the MFP-Y Fellowship for the 2015-16 year. This is a fellowship focused on work with minority populations as well as youth. Although the fellowhsip year has just begun, it has already provided Davis the opportunity to attend several AAMFT trainings focused on several topics including sibling violence, neuroscience intigrated with family systems, childhood trauma and expressive therapy, and solution focused therapy for children and families.

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I had the opportunity to study basic counseling with my home church, Open Baptist, and through an organization called Face the Nation. I was able to meet and counsel many of the students who had family issues and, sometimes, counsel with their parents. I volunteered in this capacity for four years.

I decided I wanted to learn how to do Marriage and Family Therapy and to be part of the healing that many societies, especially my own, desperately need. I applied and was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the Fulbright scholarship fund and was able to pursue my dream in becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Upon completion, I hope to return to my home country of Botswana where I want to start a family and marriage therapy center and work with community churches to help pastors who are already involved in family and marriage counseling.

St. Cloud State University / Department Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

Professors

Dr. Steven Peltier is the newest addition to the marriage and family therapy program at St. Cloud State. Dr. Peltier is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.

He then went on to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in Counselor Education (now known as the counseling psychology program). Dr. Peltier is a licensed Dr. Steve Peltier psychologist as well as licensed marriage and family therapist. He was previously the marriage and family therapy program director at the University of Saint Mary’s for 10 years.

While at Saint Mary’s he helped create the Psy D. program, the play therapy certificate program, as well as the masters and certificate program for marriage and family therapy. Dr. Peltier has been a part of many other program developments including the creation of the counseling program at the University of Virginia.

Among these projects, Dr. Peltier has also worked with many people through his 35 years of private practice. He has worked with families as well as couples specializing in dual career couples. He has been involved with issues such as mental health care for seniors, mental health advocacy and program development. Dr. Peltier grew up in Litchfield, is married and has three sons.

Dr. Jennifer Connor continues to coordinate and teach in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program while staying involved in two research collaborations.

This past year she co-authored a paper in the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy related to gender roles in Somali families, and Dr. Jennifer Connor papers in Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology and Journal of Family Psychology related to communication in families formed through medical assistance.

Dr. Mick Mayhew

Along with his usual teaching and advising activities, Mick and the MFT faculty – under the guidance of Dr. Connor – continues to work toward finding ways of improving the MFT Master’s Degree program.

He went to Romania as a guest to a shelter that houses women and children who have experienced abuses and sex trafficking.

Additional to providing trainings and clinical consultations, he consulted with a budding international MFT training program that is in conjunction with a hospital. The folks in training for MFT systemic understanding and application are physicians and psychologists. He was able to travel with his daughter Hannah which proved to be a wonderfully enriching experience. He will be going back. Most important to Mick is the joy of spending time with his family at the farm.

Dr. Manijeh Daneshpour

Though on leave from St. Cloud State, Dr. Daneshpour has remained involved in the St. Cloud and Twin Cities mental health provider community. She, in collaboration with Recover Health Services, received a grant through the Department of Human Services to train Somali and Oromo individuals to provide mental health services in their own community.

Dr. Daneshpour is the clinical supervisor for Recover Health Services in St. Anthony. This February they opened an office in St. Cloud. The open house was attended by St. Cloud State MFT faculty and alumni.

Recover Health Resources Opening Left: Iman Dadras - 2012 alum, and UMN CFT doctoral candidate and SCSU President Earl Potter Right: St. Cloud Mayor, Dave Kleis Far right: Attendees gather

St. Cloud State University / Department Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

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Internship Sites Erika Morrow is an intern at Family Prospective Resources (FPR).

FPR provides outpatient therapy services to individuals, couples, families and children, and also provide supervised visitations and in-home therapy. FPR sees clients from Big Lake and surrounding towns such as Monticello and Becker.

I have worked with clients from age 3 to age 60 with various diagnoses and presenting problems. I have had the opportunity to shadow and do co-therapy with many therapists, each with their own unique therapeutic style and understanding of how change occurs in clients.

The variety of approaches I have experienced here has helped me with my process of deciding which theories and techniques I connect with most in order to begin developing my own style of therapy. I currently have a few in-home clients I see each week.

I also have family, couple and individual sessions at the office in Big Lake every week. I see about half of the clients with another therapist, using a cotherapy model, and the other half I see on

my own with weekly check-ins with my supervisor to address any questions or concerns I have regarding those clients.

Location: 101 Jefferson Blvd, Big Lake, MN 55309 Website: familypros.com Vladimir Gordeyev is currently at the Village Family Service Center in St. Cloud. He is working with both in-home individual and family skills work, as well as in-office psychotherapy.

Gordeyev is also involved in co-facilitating an anger management group every Saturday morning. The majority of his skills and therapy work have been with kids between 7-16 years of age.

All skills and therapy require progress notes which he has been doing weekly. He has also received the opportunity to write a couple of diagnostic assessments. Overall, he has said it has been a wonderful experience and he is very grateful for the resources that The Village has for interns.

Address: 4140 Thielman Lane, Suite 303 St. Cloud, MN

First Year Cohort

Second Year Cohort

Back row: Cathryn Ahrensfeld, Liz Christianson, Lexi Alm, Ellie Jack, Mark Ebelhar, David Kriesel; Middle row: Cassie Dalbey, Ariel Thiner, Britta Brolin, Keziah Samakabadi; Front row: Evita Sanchez, Liz Donkers, Krystina Rasmussen, Emileah ZumBerge. Not pictured: Bryanna Garwood, Mischa Idzerda

Back row: Cathleen Curtis, Vladimir Gordeyev, Jeffrey Reed, Dustin Monson, Luke Hamilton, Brett Nikula; Middle row: Rachel Biegel, Ellie Jones, Shiva Sadeghi, Kelsey Steinbach, Seal Dwyer, Jeff Kraft, Reema Bhattacharya, Keng Xiong, Chue Her, Kelly Davis; On Skype: Touba Khurshid; not pictured: Erika Morrow, Steve Ringsmuth Stolpman

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, COUNSELING AND FAMILY THERAPY

Additional contact information: jjconnor@stcloudstate.edu Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/159625215778/

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