Sara Livingston-Burke, LPCC (director of Ellie's community based services program) and Emily Weidenbacher, BA, MA (manager of Ellie's school-based therapy program) join the podcast today to talk all about building rapport with teenagers, issues that teens face, and how to do the best therapeutic work with this population.

Emily graduated with her Master’s in counseling and is working towards being independently licensed with her (LPCC). Emily has previous experience working in local day treatments, school settings across metro districts, and college campuses. Emily has been in the mental health field since 2012, and she specializes in seeing children and teens, and also has a niche for working with maternal mental health.

Sara spent several years working in domestic violence shelters, and then teaching clients skills-based work through the ARMHS and In-Home Therapy program as well as helping her clients discover their best selves through a client-centered approach in a therapeutic setting. Sara practices as an Adlerian therapist with CBT techniques. Sara also works with individuals in the ARMHS program by teaching coping skills, daily routines/activities, medication management, and healthy living activities.

Therapist Thrival Guide is a video-podcast by Ellie Mental Health. The intention is to move therapists beyond surviving and into the realm of THRIVING by covering all the things that graduate school didn't teach you! This mental health podcast is hosted by Miranda Barker, MSW, LICSW and Dr. Lucas Volini, DMFT, LMFT. Each episode features a therapist at Ellie speaking to their areas of expertise, clinical interests, and personal experiences of being a therapist. This podcast covers topics like burn-out, self of therapist, cultural considerations, client retention, session structure, advancing clinical skills, innovations in therapy, and balancing professional relationships with our personal lives. Every now and then, we'll even cover the happenings of how therapists are portrayed in pop culture.

Miranda Barker, MSW, LICSW, has been practicing as a therapist for two years. She previously worked as a child protection investigator, adoption social worker, and case manager. She's new to the therapy game and loves soaking up all of the knowledge from the expert therapists in her life. She's the Executive Producer at Ellie Mental Health's in-house creative agency and believes that creativity is an important aspect of mental health care.

Dr. Lucas Volini, DMFT, LMFT, has been practicing as a marriage and family therapist for over ten years. Prior to joining Ellie as our VP of Clinical Quality & Innovation, he dedicated 8 years in higher education as a professor and clinical researcher at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level of learning. With an emphasis on working with relational systems, he's a die-hard family therapist through and through and remains infatuated with all things family therapy. He's also the author of two textbooks geared toward preparing MFT graduates to pass the national licensing exam...But at the end of the day, he mostly sees himself as a professional recreational golfer and aspiring YouTuber.

Therapist THRIVAL Guide is one of many creative productions from ⁠Ellie Mental Health⁠. Ellie is a national mental health brand organized around community-based outpatient mental health clinics. It all began with a single office in St. Paul, Minnesota back in 2015, and since then has expanded to over 24 clinics in Minnesota and an explosive number of locations nationwide after franchising our model in 2021. Ellie will be opening over 500 locations in communities nationwide with new clinics opening each week. #therapy #mentalhealth