Children

I am the foster care program manager at EVOLVE Family Services. We do home study assessments and license both traditional and kinship foster providers as well as provide post-placement support. Our agency also does work in adoption and permanency, youth services, and pregnancy services. I am a transracial and transnational adoptee. I have previously held roles in supervised parenting, domestic violence case management and advocacy, and psychotherapy.

Address:
5850 Omaha Ave. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082

I greatly enjoy my current role working as a mental health professional. I practice in the outpatient setting both in person and virtually. I work with children, youth, and families with a variety of diagnoses. I have the most experience working with individuals impacted by trauma, and I am trained in EMDR. I have experience professionally working with individuals and families who have experienced adoption and foster care, and I also have personal connections to adoption as my sister is an adult adoptee. 

Leslie Allred, LICSW, is the Director of Social Emotional Wellness at St. Paul City School, where she leads the development and implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports to ensure equitable access to whole-child services for students and families. She provides clinical licensure supervision for School Social Workers and delivers training and coaching to district educators on social-emotional wellness practices, trauma-informed education, and mental health.

Address:
14955 Galaxie Ave.
Apple Valley, MN 55124

I am an outpatient therapist, working with children, adolescents, and young adults. I have 5+ years of experience as a therapist, and I have experience working in day treatment and intensive outpatient settings. I utilize a strengths-based, attachment-based, and trauma-focused lens when working with clients and their families. I highly value collaboration with clients and their families together, as well as professional collaboration and consultation.

Deirdre Otis is a licensed social worker with broad experience across child welfare, school-based, and healthcare settings. She earned her undergraduate degree from the College of Saint Benedict and her Master of Social Work from Saint Catherine University, where her academic focus included grief counseling and child welfare. She also completed a clinical internship utilizing the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), strengthening her trauma-informed practice.

Rachel has been providing services in the local area since 2022. She received her master's in art therapy and counseling from Southwestern College and New Earth Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She enjoys working with a broad age range of clients, often finding herself working with many adolescents. Rachel helps her clients by recognizing and valuing their uniqueness, understanding how ideas affect their emotions, assisting in transforming unhealthy behaviors, and providing a secure, trusting environment conducive to healing, self-acceptance, and self-love.

I am a child welfare/Permanency social worker in a county human services setting, with a primary focus on achieving permanency for children involved in the child welfare system. My work includes supporting foster care and kinship placements, coordinating services, and guiding families through the permanency process, including reunification and adoption.

HELP Program Specialist with over a decade of direct work experience in Child Welfare in five Midwestern states; specifically in foster care, adoption (foster care/ international/ domestic infant), foster care licensing, crisis intervention, and school social work. 

Address:
Foster Adopt Minnesota
2446 University Ave. W
Suite 140
Minneapolis, MN 55114

I am an outpatient therapist who is also a transracial adoptee. I work with populations ages 9-35 at this moment. I apply multi approaches and modalities such as ACT, DBT Skills, IFS, Interpersonal therapy, CBT/TF-CBT. I will be certified in PCIT fairly soon. I strive to be culturally competent and incorporate faiths of all backgrounds to support my clients. I also incorporate parents into my sessions with working with kids. I work with a lot of children and adults who have been been adopted or part of the child welfare system. I also will be trained in EMDR in the next few years.