It was at a St. Patrick’s Day party that Tom and Lisa discovered they were both Christ- followers and social workers who cared deeply about serving those who were disadvantaged, hurting, unsure, displaced, misunderstood or marginalized. With more than 50 combined years of experience and countless hours of training, we offer our counseling services and supervision through Branton Counselors.
Lisa received her Master’s of Social Work in 1994 and has worked in the field of social work in hospital, community mental health, school and in church settings since 1987. Her work has been primarily in private practice providing children, individual, couple, family and group therapy. Through Missio Seminary, Lisa completed a series of advanced trauma classes with the Global Trauma Recovery Institute. In the fall of 2020, she completed Jay Stringers Unwanted training. As a certified trainer, she meets with those wanting freedom from troubling, unwanted and/or addictive sexual behavior. She finds herself most often sitting with others in the spaces of anxiety, depression, trauma (childhood, sexual, domestic, physical and health), relationship pain, addiction, grief, panic, self-harm, couples pain and suicide.
I take an integrated approach to counseling, drawing upon a variety of counseling theories and methodologies. My goal is to provide a safe place to navigate life's challenges, experience growth, and find solutions through life's most complex and difficult matters.
For those looking for a faith-based mental health therapist, Lisa is influenced by the work of Dr. Phil Monroe, Ph.D. and Diane Langberg, Ph.D. Diane says it well, “I believe that unless therapy is both incarnational and redemptive, in process and in purpose, we who call ourselves counselors will fail to bring to our clients true life as embodied in the person of Christ.” What that looks like for each person I meet is unique and best understood in the context of a relationship built on trust and time. Without a full, well-informed context in view provided by that relationship, spiritual harm can be done while with a therapist when help was intended.
Lisa believes in the importance of bringing solid mental health training combined with the hope of healing and freedom. She draws heavily from trauma, psychodynamic, existential, person-centered, family systems, CBT and client-centered counseling theories. For those who are interested, I enjoy praying with the people I see and considering from scripture how God might be kindly pursuing you. I take your lead.
Tom received his Master’s in Social Work in 1989, has worked as a School Social Worker for 29 years serving children on the spectrum as well as those who were neurotypical. He is currently teaching social work research at Concordia University and counseling. He was born and raised in Detroit which explains his love for all Detroit professional sports teams and spends his spare time mountain biking, reading and driving his teenage daughter around.