Background

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, and raised across several major U.S. cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston, Kristin developed an appreciation for the the variety and complexity of human experience. In college, she gravitated toward learning about the human condition from multiple points of view, reinforcing pluralistic and pragmatic approaches to questioning and understanding the world. Beyond her interests in human psychology, it was her experience of deeply caring about people that moved her to practice social work.

She attended the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration (now the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, & Practice) and received her master's degree in 2013. During her graduate education, she gained a rigorous cross-theoretical foundation, influenced by the teachings of Lecturer Emeritus William Borden, PhD, who published broadly on topics related to clinical pluralism and pragmatism, integrative perspectives in psychosocial intervention, and comparative psychotherapy, among others.

Kristin’s clinical training began at Chicago Women's Health Center, a collective organization that provides affirming gynecology, counseling, and other health services to women and trans people from a feminist-relational perspective. Her training focused on building collaborative, equal partnerships, where clients are understood as experts of their own experience, and their philosophy recognized the personal as political, inviting conversations about experiences of identity that fundamentally shape who we are and our experience of being in the world. Kristin remains strongly connected to these values and strives to honor our differences and similarities with humility and integrity.

Over the course of her career, mindfulness became increasingly fundamental to her work and personal life. In 2019, she completed an intensive mindfulness and yoga teacher training through Little Flower Yoga in New York and began developing mindfulness workshops for students, faculty, and staff at Sauk Valley Community College, where she also taught psychology and provided counseling. Today, she maintains a personal practice of mindfulness meditation and commits to an ongoing weekly mindfulness mentorship group with teacher and trainer Barbara Newell.

As a therapist invested in facilitating positive outcomes and improving therapist effectiveness, Kristin participates in ongoing consultation and continuing education in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and utilizes client feedback measures to support her work. She is a 2023-2024 fellow in the ACT Practice and Consultation Fellowship at the University of Chicago. Additionally, to further her understanding of data within the social sciences, she recently completed a Data Analytics Credential from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. She has a passion for integrating existential-humanistic perspectives within a framework of evidence-based practice.