OUR TEAM
Yvette Givand, MSW, LISW-S Clinical Director/Therapist
Yvette Givand is an independent licensed clinical therapist that operates in the field of mental health services with an abundance of professional competence, clinical experience, quality education, and deep passion for helping people overcome mental challenges to have and enjoy a better quality of life. Yvette is not just concerned about being a very effective therapist for her clients, she wants to make sure other therapist are supported and professionally guided to provide the same high quality of mental health services to their clients. This is her primary motivation for becoming a designated clinical supervisor/director for other therapists.
“My goal is in helping individuals enjoy their authentic self and enjoy people, environments and experiences. By employing an integrated method approach, I aim to help my clients develop more healthy coping tools to manage life stressors and create positive outcomes.”
Counseling:
Yvette’s role as your counselor is key in guiding your expectations of counseling, establishing healthy communication and building a positive relationship with you. With her ability to authentically connect with people, she is able to achieve the goal in providing effective interventions, helping to develop healthy emotional/social competency skills while addressing your unique life stressors.
“I feel that relationships are important to the quality of our lives, and one of the strongest indicators of the degree of the quality of our relationships with others is the quality of our relationship with ourselves.”
Yvette also enjoys helping families discover ways to heal pass their pain and build strong relationships. Her experiences serving at risk and marginalized individuals and groups further developed her ability to recognize human potential and worth which helped shapes and informs her counseling approach.
Experience:
Yvette has over 30 years’ experience in helping children, caregivers and professionals learn and implement ways to increase children learning potential by addressing their social-emotional skills. Yvette’s experience includes; teaching preschool, directing a two county Head Start program for 10yrs., public school administrator for 17yrs., teaching parenting classes for over 25yrs., an adjunct college instructor for 10yrs., a certified Trauma Specialist, an independent licensed social worker/mental health therapist (MSW, LISW-S), a graduate of Bluffton College, and The Ohio State University Graduate program for Social work, and a Fellow of the UCLA college of Public Administration/John Anderson-school of Business.
Shannon Jones
Shannon is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she earned a B.S. from the school of education with a degree in child and youth studies. Shannon has led training courses aimed to support student achievement and future academic growth as well as life skills classes. “I am passionate about working with children and teens. As a youth advocate, I have worked with teens to help them navigate the highs and lows of life through relationship and life management skills. I’m excited to join the team at Bridges Mental Health Services as the educational coordinator of child and teen programs. “
Darrell James
Darrell is a Crisis Support Trainer, Certified Life & Relationship Coach, author, and speaker in the areas of family, life & relationships. Specialty areas of focus include; youth/teen groups, motivational conversations directed at encouraging self-regulation, effective communication, reality recognition, and manifesting positive self-control. He’s received certifications from The Transformation Academy, Trauma Institute International, and The International Association of Child Therapists as well as currently being enrolled at Indiana Wesleyan University to complete a degree in Clinical Counseling.
Susie Boyer
Susie has always had the desire to help others and has a long history of working with children and adults in scouting, church camp and teaching swimming to babies through adults at the local YMCA. She then finished her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work at OSU as a non-traditional student, a mother of 2 children who was working part time jobs.
Susie has found her natural and professionally developed sense of efficacy in helping hurting people find ways to heal and enjoy their life. Part of this development was grounded in her own experience with managing her adhd symptomatic bxs as an adult and more personally navigating her own grieving process. She understands at a more intrinsic level of how critical it is to learn how to manage your moods and re-invest back into your life in a way that “fills your basket” and experience your relationships and events in healthier ways.
With over 20 years plus experience as a Social Worker in community health programs, leading support groups, implementing interventions for troubled teens, parent education, completing various Nationally recognized trainings/curriculums for trauma care and mindfulness programs. Susie was able to bring her formal training and competencies to the school age population to help address students with challenging behaviors that interferes with their academic experiences and family relationships. Susie has had and continue to see success with working with that are exposed to intense environmental stressors/crises. Susie operates with the eclectic model of therapeutic interventions that use Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Mindfulness, Trauma Recovery, and others. Susie believes that the Mind-Body connection is very powerful and deserves to be addressed with effective interventions that teaches clients about how to monitor and regulate their manifested physical symptoms. She has the ability to connect with children and adults and provide an atmosphere that is non- threatening, non- judgmental relaxed environment. This helps clients to discover and celebrate who they are and to encourage them to look at areas that cause un-ease. Susie’s area of training and experience are; ADHD and LD’s, Crisis Management, Domestic Violence, Sexual abuse issues, TLC-Trauma and loss in children and adults, Suicide pre/post prevention, Effective parenting, Spirituality, Healing, Self-care, Empowerment and Tapping.
She employs an eclectic method approach in assisting clients that is strength-based, client centered and client empowered to help manage these issues of stress. She also teaches and shares her love of doing art, Zentangles, drumming, Journaling, Energy work, mindfulness and relaxation exercises in session. These modalities have helped her with her own journey.