Heather has received her Master of Arts Degree in Counseling from Spring Arbor University in 2011. Throughout her career, she has obtained certifications as a Certified Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CAADC), Certified Clinical Supervisor (CCS), and Certified Mental Health Nutritional Specialist. She is a board member with Recovery Advocacy Warriors (RAW), the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Monroe County, and attends many community meetings for recovery.

Her experience includes individual, family, and group mental health and substance abuse counseling for adolescents and adults. She has worked in various settings, including inpatient, outpatient, school-based, federally qualified health centers, primary care, and prison settings. Additionally, she is trained to provide driver’s license assessments and assessments to determine the level of care using SASSI and other assessment tools. She participated in a research study for SBIRT in primary care, which has proven to be an effective link for individuals seeking addiction treatment.

In therapy, she utilizes ACT approaches, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) with a focus on mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), solution-focused therapy, person-centered therapy, motivational interviewing, and other open-ended concepts.

Currently, she provides co-occurring treatment in individual and group settings. She offers supervision for professionals in private practice sectors and non-profit agencies who are on a development plan for their CAADC certification, are limited licensed, and provides consultation to others in the field as needed.

Claire is a limited licensed professional counselor.

Claire holds a Master’s degrees in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (2019) and Criminal Justice & Criminology (2014) from Loyola University Chicago. She has clinical experience at the outpatient and inpatient level. 

In Chicago, Claire provided therapeutic support to a wide array of adult clients, including those with co-occurring disorders, histories of chronic trauma, parolees, probationers, and unhoused clients. She is trained in substance abuse treatment and spent 3 years providing individual therapy, group therapy, psychoeducation, and case management services to clients in residential treatment and outpatient medication-assisted treatment. She also has several years of experience working in a clinical forensic assessment capacity, assisting with Court-appointed evaluations for DCFS, child custody, and criminal cases in Chicago. 

Since relocating to Michigan in 2022, Claire has worked in private practice, providing individual therapy to adult clients via telehealth. Claire believes that therapy is most beneficial when treatment modality is tailored to the individual. Depending on a client’s unique history, identity, needs, and goals, Claire integrates elements of various evidence-based treatments into sessions, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), person-centered therapy/motivational interviewing, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and solution-focused therapy (SFT). She also incorporates clinical psychoeducation into therapy when appropriate and relevant to client need. Topics may include trauma/PTSD, domestic violence/abusive relationships, healthy boundaries, behavioral skill management, and the impact of psychological acculturation on mental health.

Claire is a member of the American Counseling Association and is licensed to practice counseling in both Michigan and Illinois. She currently provides individual therapy to adults via telehealth at Oliver Lee Consulting