About Us
John Stillman, MSW, LICSW
John Stillman is a co-founder and clinical social worker at Caspersen Therapy and Training Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where he practices narrative therapy with children, adolescents, and adults. As Director of Caspersen Training Center, he provides narrative therapy training to professionals from multiple disciplines. In 2002, he was a member of the first diplomate program taught by Michael White at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia, and is an international narrative therapy trainer. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and two sons, and dog, and raises chickens and keeps bees.
Angie Gwiazdon, MSE, LMFT
For over 25 years, Angie has helped people discover their preferred path in life. As is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and board approved supervisor, she brings compassion, curiosity, and humor to her work. She believes in the importance of each individuals unique experience – and how that is expressed and understood through race, gender, sexual orientation, spirituality, and socioeconomic status.
Drawing on her own life experiences and extensive training, Angie is fluent in Narrative Therapy, Postmodern approaches, Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, EMDR, and Polyvagal Theory. Her practice also spans a diverse collection of settings, including private practice, residential treatment, day treatment, and on-site mental health in schools.
Angie's work addresses a wide range of mental health challenges, including depression, anxiety, abuse, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, grief/loss. She also has deep experience with parenting issues, couple and family communication and providing supervision and training.
She brings her compassionate, healing work to all ages, working with adolescents, adults, couples and families. Angie currently funs a DBT group for high school aged adolescents.
John Simensen, MHA, MA, LPCC
John is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor who enjoys working with adults, adolescents, couples and families facing a variety of issues in their lives and relationships. John is particularly interested in postmodern counseling approaches and mindfulness-based therapies. He has specialized training in narrative therapy and combines this approach with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). John has extensive experience working with men and families struggling with domestic abuse and itseffects on their lives. John’s background includes 17 years as a Senior Vice President and corporate officer with Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis which enables him to use his clinical training with organizations and executives seeking growth and change and to assist men and families with life transitions.
Leila Erlandson, MA, LMFT
Leila is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a state certified domestic violence and a sexual assault counselor. She holds a certificate in trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy.
Leila enjoys working with people of all ages and backgrounds. She has a strong understanding of the effects of trauma and knows how to support people as they heal from difficult, often life-changing experiences. She uses experiential and narrative approaches in her work.
Leila has a breath of counseling experience and is committed to working with people holistically.
Leila is skilled at asking insightful questions that will spark ideas within her clients to impact personal change.
Steffanie Johnson, MA, LMFT
Steffanie is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 20 years experience having worked in residential, home-based, in school, and clinic settings. Steffanie works with adults and adolescents to provide support and guidance for individuals seeking positive change. Steffanie works collaboratively with people to create a safe space to process and find solutions to their challenges with emphasis on the therapeutic relationship. She utilizes experiential, narrative, solution-focused, and mindfulness-based approaches to assist in fostering insight and understanding while working through conflicts and emotions. Steffanie works with individuals experiencing relationship issues or having symptoms of depression and anxiety, substance abuse, career and work concerns, struggles with past abuse or trauma, facing chronic or acute health issues, or working through life transition stressors. Steffanie’s approach embraces the richness brought by identities and expressions of individual ethnicity, race, gender, sexual/affectional orientation, spirituality, and socioeconomic status.
Fawn Vogt, MA, LPCC, LADC
Fawn is both a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC). She has worked in a variety of outpatient, residential, and inpatient settings. Fawn is continuously growing her knowledge and skills. This includes completing intensive trainings in Brainspotting, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Yoga Calm. Fawn strives to understand everyone’s individual journey that brought them to their now, so that they can better tolerate their now and have a better future. She enjoys helping clients improve their understand of their nervous system and the wisdom their body offers to support greater healing. Fawn feels honored to walk beside individuals in their life journey. In addition to individual therapy, Fawn facilitates two weekly adolescent DBT groups and provides substance abuse evaluations.
Diane Jorgensen, MSW, LICSW
Diane is a licensed clinical social worker who enjoys working with people to find innovative ways to reduce the effects of problems in their lives. She has a collaborative approach that emphasizes each individual’s story within the context of their family, community, and societal systems. She has advanced training in Narrative Therapy. Diane has experience working with people with trauma histories, including direct and vicarious medical trauma, mood disorders, and adjustment disorders. She has a special interest in working with trans and gender non-confirming individuals and other members of the LGBT community, as well first and second generation immigrants. She has received past awards for her commitment to diversity and inclusion in her work a clinical social worker in a medical setting.
Martha Anderson, MS, LMFT
Martha Anderson has worked over 20 years in a variety of settings from a strength based approach empowering adults, children and their families to find solutions to the problems facing them. She strives to use creativity, compassion and humor in her work. Martha is trained in a number of advanced techniques in trauma, and enjoys mentoring others in supervision. She also loves family and couples therapy and believes strongly in the power of these relationships to change and to heal. She received certification from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and brings mindfulness based skills into her individual sessions, and mind-body skills in groups with both adults and adolescents. She is an Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) trained therapist, finding it is another useful tool in helping clients release trauma memories. In her free time, you can find her spending time with her husband and two daughters, camping, hiking, and gardening or out walking the dogs.
Ann Schendel, MA, LMFT
Ann is a licensed psychotherapist, a certified EMDR therapist with a concentration in trauma. She works with issues unique to people suffering the effects of complex trauma, complex childhood trauma and single incident trauma.
Ann works individually with clients within their unique family systems. She includes and invites the complexity and dignity of unconventional relationship structures and affirm the challenges and joys they provide. Ann is a LBGTQ informed therapist providing individual therapy with people in monogamous and polyamorous relationships.
Ann has a practical approach utilizing Narrative therapy and she includes the best of Western psychology methods in combination with Eastern influences. Ann’s specific areas of attention have included, but are not limited to trauma, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, personality development, monogamous relationship issues, polyamorous relationship issues, gender/ identity issues and addiction.
Theo Page, MSW, LICSW
Theo believes that taking care of one’s mental health is the most important part of being human. Person-centered treatment planning has been the focus of his entire career.
Narrative therapy has been the foundation for his work with individuals, families and communities. He also employs the tools and skills of cognitive-behavioral therapy, trauma informed care, solution-focused care and person-centered treatment planning.
Theo’s Mindfulness training has allowed him to help clients discuss difficult topics by creating relaxed spaces for them in their mental health work. Areas of his therapeutic practice include living with chronic illness, grief and loss, depression and anxiety, end of life care, neglect, bullying, and trauma associated with abuse.
Providing services to the LGBTQI community is what Theo considers to be the core essence of his being human.
Erika Farrell, MA, LPCC
Erika is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC). She has worked in a variety of outpatient, in-home, day treatment and hospital settings. She is a relationship-centered therapist who works to collaborate with the client with the intent of empowering their own self-discovery. She has experience working with intercultural families of Latin American origin and is fluent in Spanish. Erika is a Nationally Certified Health and Wellness Coach and works to integrate all aspects of a client’s physical and mental health experience. She integrates CBT, DBT and Solution Focused techniques into her humanistic approach. Erika works with adults and teens struggling with depression, anxiety and trauma with special interest in survivors of narcissistic abuse and suicide. She feels there is no greater privilege than to offer an open space for clients to process and heal.
Elizabeth Schumack, MSW, LICSW
Elizabeth works with clients from varied backgrounds, including socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, generational, educational, sexual, etc. Elizabeth also works with transgender and non-binary individuals as well as those with sexually impulsivity or problematic behaviors.
Elizabeth is a licensed practitioner of Narrative Therapy (NT) who utilizes strength’s-based, cognitive-behavioral, and trauma-informed modalities in therapeutic practice. Elizabeth has special interest in women’s health and sexual health. Elizabeth is currently in the process of sex therapy certification through The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT).
Elizabeth is a prolific reader, from fiction to poetry, to research and nature-writing. She has been interested in, and collected, rocks and semi-precious stones since she was a child. Additionally, Elizabeth love plants, both indoor and outdoor varieties, and keeps a colorful garden in the summer. She is a poet, finding inspiration in nature, the beauty of common objects, and lived experience.
As a narrative therapist Elizabeth acknowledges the multiplicity of stories in our lives, helping others gain authorship of their story via the therapeutic process. She meets people where they are at, challenging preconceived notions of normativity, while fostering strength, grace, and development of the self.
Susan Medo, MA, LP
Susan is a Licensed Psychologist and National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach who enjoys working with individual adults of all ages. She provides support, practical feedback, and guidance toward resolution of current problems and long-standing patterns. With sensitivity and compassion, Susan draws from Collaborative Competency-Based, Cognitive and Existential psychological approaches. She will work with you toward solutions to a wide range of life challenges and psychological issues. She believes in the importance of viewing individuals from a whole person perspective and is especially sensitive to LBGTQ+ clients. Together you will identify and build on your strengths to achieve the changes that are important to you.
Susan lives in Minneapolis. She is passionate about hiking in nature, enjoys traveling and alpine skiing and is a beginning level birder and Pickleball player.
Mike Hitzelberger, MA, LP
Mike brings more than thirty years experience as a therapist to his clients. He has a Masters-level psychology license in the State of Minnesota and is LPCC Board Approved to provide clinical supervision.
Mike works with clients whose concerns can include transition issues, relationship issues, coming out, sexuality, spirituality, work difficulties, persons experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, trauma, grief and loss, and those seeking adjunct therapy for ADHD and post-addiction treatment.
He is an EMDR-trained therapist, who also draws on CBT, mindfulness practice, Jungian psychology, postmodern therapy approaches, experiential therapy, Gottman and Atkinson Relationship theory, and practical, solution-based problem solving.
His background in the mental health field includes more than twenty years in community mental health, outpatient dual disorders, phone crisis intervention, employee assistance, management consulting, and workplace critical-incident crisis response.
Mike sees therapy as a collaborative process and endeavors to engage his clients with humor, compassion, openness, and challenging conversation. He encourages compassion for others and for the self, and he has witnessed the healing that arises from engaging with those historic experiences that form our limiting beliefs, behaviors, and emotions in order to create a narrative that supports a more helpful approach to life.
When he is not being a therapist, he is active in two choirs, plays ukulele in a jam band, and enjoys hiking, biking, photography, and cooking. He also licensed to operate steam boilers and perform wedding ceremonies.