Leah Faiad, MS LAMFT

about Leah

​Leah Faiad, MS LAMFT
Licensed Associate Marriage & Family Therapist
Dr. Jenny Holdredge, PsyD LMFT, Supervisor
​​Leah holds a master's degree in marriage and family therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and a bachelor's degree in child youth and family studies from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Leah believes in empowering clients to access their own strengths by utilizing a solution focused perspective to overcome life’s challenges. Leah enjoys working with individuals and families across the lifespan, including children, teens, adults, couples and families. She utilizes both talk therapy and child centered play therapy when appropriate to facilitate the healing process. Her special areas of interest include anxiety, depression, family conflict, parenting stress, life transitions, trauma and sexuality. She provides individuals with a variety of mindfulness based techniques to increase ones ability to manage difficult emotions and improve overall self awareness. Leah aspires to create a warm and and non-judgmental environment for clients to find healing and inner peace. 

Michelle Strafelda, MA LPCC

about michelle

​Michelle Strafelda, MA LPCC
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
​​Michelle holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of St. Thomas. She is passionate about providing individual therapy to adults and teenagers, with a special focus on first establishing a safe, nonjudgmental relationship with clients before beginning to approach more serious issues with them, such as healing from trauma and other negative life experiences. She wholeheartedly believes that individuals are able to change when they are an active part of their recovery and are given tools to help themselves heal.  She uses her genuine self to help build trust and connection with clients of all ages. Michelle is trained in EMDR (eye movement and desensitization and reprocessing), a trauma-focused intervention that assists clients in addressing negative beliefs, intrusive thoughts, and triggers that prevent clients from living in the present moment. She has long been very passionate about helping individuals and families to better understand how their trauma affects them and those around them, as it is such a stigmatized and misunderstood phenomena in our society. After working through trauma reprocessing, Michelle helps client to find growth and new meaning in their lives. Michelle’s other therapeutic interests include but are not limited to: mindfulness and meditation, immigration issues, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, trauma-related disorders, chemical dependency issues, family systems, grief and loss, job stress, love languages, nutritional well-being and cooking, yoga, nature as a healing experience, multicultural issues, LGBTQ rights, and fostering a social support network. Michelle uses a person-centered approach which allows her to meet clients in whatever stage of change they are currently in. This approach allows each client or family to be the expert of their own lives. She draws upon elements of as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). These techniques have been known to give clients additional skills to cope with symptoms and other everyday stressors. Michelle is continually improving her written and spoken fluency in Spanish and hopes to continue make herself available to working with Spanish-speaking clients. She is always trying to challenge herself to grow her multicultural knowledge to better meet her clients’ needs.

​Amelia McGinley, MSW LICSW

about Amelia

​Amelia McGinley, MSW LICSW 
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker
​​Amelia has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. Amelia has over 10 years of experience providing therapy to adults, children, and families primarily in marginalized and disadvantaged communities. She enjoys working with a variety of clients and concerns, but focuses a on treating trauma, grief, parenting concerns, and working cross culturally. She is bilingual in Spanish and loves working with Latinos, both native speakers individually and in helping parents understand and raise children who speak primarily English. She has a great deal of love and experience also working with with refugees and African American communities. As a queer-identified clinician, Amelia strives to work with fellow GLTBQI individuals on any variety of issues, and has specific experience with trans youth. Amelia’s past work has included community health centers, in-home family therapy, and inpatient hospital mental health units. Amelia helps her clients balance all aspects of their health and often attends to the mind-body connection. She is personally and professionally invested in implementing self-care habits, attending to life-work balance, working on healthy boundaries in relationships, and living according to one’s values. Amelia’s therapeutic approach is eclectic and is influenced by mindfulness, attachment theory, somatic therapies, psychodynamic theory, neuro-affective psychology, and cognitive-behavioral interventions.

​Holly (Traynor) Tofanell, MA LMFT

about holly

​Holly (Traynor) Tofanell, MA LMFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
​​​Holly holds a master’s degree from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University. She welcomes working with adults, teens, couples, and families regarding relationship conflicts, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, substance abuse, communication, addictive behaviors, aggression, GLBT issues, parenting and emotional dysregulation. As a group facilitator, Holly is both dynamic and engaging. She is certified in Prepare/Enrich assessments as well as Aggression Replacement Training. Holly is trained in Brainspotting and EMDR and utilizes these two mindfulness based approaches to help clients reprocess past traumatic experiences. Holly has also worked with Alzheimer’s/Dementia, and family caregivers at the University of Minnesota and Fairview Hospital. Holly believes therapy is a collaborative partnership between therapist and client and provides a safe, judgment-free environment where she can offer hope, acceptance, connection and empowerment. She helps her clients find successful ways to navigate problems by listening to their stories and helping them to feel connected with themselves and others. Holly believes that her role as a therapist is to assist her clients to become masters of their own change and growth, and tailors her therapy based on client need.

Kate Stevenson, MA

about kate

​Kate Stevenson, MA
Therapist
Dr. Jenny Holdredge, PsyD LMFT, Supervisor
Kate holds a master’s degree in counseling and psychological services from Saint Mary’s University. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and theatre arts and a minor in English writing from Concordia College, Moorhead. Kate has experience working with adults in a higher level of care, providing psychotherapy and psychoeducation on key topics such as coping and distress tolerance skills, goal setting, wellness, assertiveness skills and boundary setting, naming and understanding emotions, understanding mental health and stigma, social skills and healthy relationships, and meditation/mindfulness skills. Kate has worked extensively with adults experiencing generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, mood disorders, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and autism. Kate uses a person-centered approach to establish a warm and genuine relationship with her clients and provide a safe, non-judgmental, and validating place for them to share their story. She draws upon elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) in order to introduce tools, skills, and concepts for clients to implement in their lives. Creativity, humor, and bibliotherapy (books!) are especially welcome in Kate’s practice.

St. Paul Office

1208 Grand Ave.
St. Paul, MN  55105​