About Kindred Psychology
Who are we?
We provide exceptional counseling, evaluation, and therapy services to individuals, couples, groups, and families of all configurations. We offer a progressive approach to behavioral healthcare, providing services that are personalized, relational, and scientifically supported. Kindred Psychology is an inclusive and affirming Counseling Psychology practice.
What Do We Value?
We are a strengths-based workplace culture, highly valuing:
- Client and clinician engagement
- Personal investment in progressive cultural change
- Honoring diversity with cultural humility and a lens of intersectionality
- Collaboratively caring for our clients and each other
- The unwavering belief that transformation is possible
A personal note from our Founder
People often ask the story of how Kindred Psychology came to be. Obviously we are known as a place that is intensely focused on client care, healing and transformation, and progressive social change. But what’s the story behind the creation of the place that is Kindred Psychology?
It started with an internal restlessness.
For more than a decade, I had been working as a solo private practitioner in a variety of office arrangements. I appreciated the freedom and independence to see clients when I wanted, during the hours that worked best for everyone. My caseload was robust and well-balanced. I enjoyed my clients tremendously, and was fulfilled by the meaningful work we were doing together. It was a privileged existence, for sure.
But I felt internally restless, and I couldn’t identify the source. I went to therapy. Returned to graduate school for my doctoral degree. Completed a year-long yoga teacher training intensive.
Still restless.
During the final year of my doctoral program, I completed an internship at Creighton University’s Center for Health and Counseling. One otherwise ordinary afternoon, I was walking down the hallway after-hours . Outside an open door, I heard Dr. Michael Kelley and Dr. Allison Harlow both laughing uproariously in Allison’s office. All of the exploration I had done in graduate school and yoga teacher training had prepared me for an important insight to fall into place at that moment.
As a solo practitioner, I had been lonely. The inner restlessness finally had a name! I realized I needed true colleagues in my work environment. I needed to enjoy laughter and rely on meaningful connections during the rough days. In making space for clients to connect meaningfully with me in therapy, I had neglected to create a place where I could connect meaningfully with colleagues. (Admittedly, in hindsight, this revelation lands a bit like DUH. But no judgment, it’s just the way things were done at the time.)
I wondered, what would a truly collaborative therapy practice arrangement look like? I envisioned a practice where clinicians had real relationships with one another, not just an office-sharing arrangement. Together with trusted colleagues, we fantasized about having stellar healthcare coverage and making the time to use it.
We imagined a place where clinicians were administratively supported by people with those skill sets. I intuitively knew that supported clinicians would have the freedom and capacity to be better therapists, which translated to improved client outcomes.
I dreamed of a practice where someone answers the phone the first time a person reaches out for help. Through the years, I’d heard countless stories of clients calling dozens of practitioners for help before hearing back from one person. And I understood, the need is far greater than supply in our community. But help-seeking can be such a vulnerable and complicated act; I wanted a responsive and supportive welcome for clients.
Moreover, through my dissertation, I understood the value of deep workplace engagement. The feminist in me has always been clear that engagement means showing up in the community and working for progressive social change. I wondered, what would it look like if we were fully engaged in sessions and outside in the world? How could we amplify our impact if we supported prevention, education, and awareness initiatives as well?
I sought counsel from innovative psychologists in California, progressive impact-focused business consultants in Washington D.C., and my trusted local attorney in Nebraska. Fast forward a few years later, and here we are. Kindred Psychology is all of the things I envisioned it would be, and so much more. It would not be the place it is without these contributions and collaborations from others along the way. (And that was really the point all along, wasn’t it?) This deeply engaged and fully supported model of practice doesn’t align with everyone’s vision for their careers. There have been and will continue to be many evolutions as Kindred Psychology grows to take shape as a collaborative therapy practice, but one thing remains clear:
After-hours, when our office doors are open, you will witness supportive connections among Kindred clinicians and staff, and you will hear the healing music of laughter in our hallways.