Meet the Team

Laura’s clinical experience includes managing an Assisted Living Alzheimer’s unit, inpatient medical and clinical psychiatric work with seniors in crisis needing emergency medical/mental health assessment, stabilization, intervention, guardianship, involuntary treatment, and discharge planning as well as outpatient clinical social work in a mental health clinic and private office setting. Laura also has experience with case management, group and individual psychotherapy, support groups, activity program design and implementation for Alzheimer’s, family therapy, staff and family education on a variety of topics, and clinical intervention on behalf of the patient with family, physicians, and residence facilities. Since 2011, Laura has been providing clinical social work to seniors on site in independent and assisted living settings, creating the Mindful Transitions practice, and growing the Mindful Transitions team.

Laura also provides continuing education to aging industry professionals, graduate level social work students, licensed social work and counseling professionals, and family audiences on a variety of topics ranging from psychotherapy techniques, assessing mental health emergencies, starting a private practice, general mental health diagnosis education, common mental health medications, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, and caregiving support. She is a member of GSCSW (Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work), and CSWA (Clinical Social Work Association). Laura has been Intensively Trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) since 2003 and was certified in Integrative Mental Health in 2021. She also supervises geriatric focused LMSWs toward LCSW licensure.

Laura works with her clients in an open, direct, and collaborative manner to thoroughly assess the issues at hand and develop treatment goals so that measurable progress can be seen. The type of counseling provided depends on the individual issues of each client or family. Often, she utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help clients change their thinking and behavior to more effectively interact with their world. As the company’s name suggests, Mindfulness is a core value for Laura’s work with all clients, and in her life as a whole and Laura teaches clients how to explore and enjoy the moments life presents-just as they are. Laura works with both older adult clients and their caregivers to help the client “age in place” and prevent premature placement whenever possible.

Laura is a very proud graduate of The University of Georgia School of Social work for both her BSW and MSW degrees. Both Mindful Transitions as a company and Laura individually have been recognized by the University of Georgia Alumni Association for their accomplishments and commitment to the University. Laura has been recognized in the UGA Alumni Association 2014 Class of “40 Under 40.” Laura was the first Social Work graduate to ever receive this special honor. Mindful Transitions was listed in both the 2017 and 2018 UGA Alumni Association “Bulldog 100” list of the fastest growing Bulldog Businesses and has been nominated for this honor in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. In addition, Laura is part of the “Women of UGA Leadership Council” and sits on the Mentorship Committee.  Laura also serves as a UGA Mentor for students at the University of Georgia considering Social Work, Psychotherapy, or Older Adult focused career paths.

John’s interests include music, the arts, hot rods, chess, cooking, and he also enjoys working with his hands. In his free time, John spends his time with his wife Laura working on their house in East Cobb and looking for all of the new experiences that life has to offer.

She started off her career working with clients who had developmental disabilities. Many of them were institutionalized, while others were mainstreamed and in work-type programs. She then moved into an internship at the Georgia War Veterans’ Home in Milledgeville, Ga. It was there that she formed a strong desire to counsel and help the elderly population. She thoroughly enjoyed listening to the hundreds of stories from the veterans themselves and provided extensive counseling services to those residents. She has the utmost respect for the geriatric population and recognizes the hardships that were endured during their lifetime and the incredible work ethic created in this generation.

She then went to work at a local hospital, gaining experience in multiple areas, including Emergency Room, Extended Stay, Short Stay, Orthopedics, and Oncology. Jill also worked on developing a patient advocate program that would function in the Emergency Room. She learned of the importance of advocating for patients and their families, especially those in crisis. She realized that a kind word, a caring gesture, and even a warming blanket could make a huge difference in one’s life. In addition, while working in oncology, Jill learned about the area of hospice, which became her next endeavor.

Jill spent the next 18 years in hospice, providing counseling and emotional support to the terminally ill and their families. She spent 8 years in the home care setting, 7 years at an inpatient unit, and 2 years providing care in Assisted Living, Independent Living, and Nursing Home Facilities. Jill’s extensive hospice experience includes end of life care, grief and bereavement counseling for children, teens, adults, and seniors, assisting with advance directives and funeral planning, linking with community resources, alternative placement for patients who are no longer hospice appropriate, and providing clinical supervision for MSW’s seeking licensure. She co-led several grief and caregiver support groups and volunteered at family bereavement camps.

In the past few years, Jill has been more focused on the aging population and acknowledges the importance of people “aging in place”. She wants to prevent placement when possible and provide resources to help clients and their families “age in place” and stay in their homes. Jill is a strong advocate for the elderly population and recognizes the many people in this population that struggle with anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, grief/bereavement, and multiple life transitions. Jill’s main focus in counseling is to be mindful of what clients feel is important to them. The type of therapy utilized depends on the individual issues of each client. She often utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness to help clients alter their thinking into a more productive and positive manner. She incorporates the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of one’s life and provides interventions based on client strengths. She also utilizes Family Systems Therapy, Crisis Intervention, and Goal-Directed Therapy as appropriate. Communication and follow-through are extremely important to Jill, as well as to successful therapy.

Christina received her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Georgia and began to work in the inpatient acute hospital and inpatient psychiatric settings. She has experience working in emergency services, neonatal intensive care, medical and surgical services, women’s services, as well as orthopedic and spinal services. She also served as the Director of Social Work services for a number of years at a local inpatient psychiatric hospital where the primary population of service was older adults. Christina has extensive experience in assessment and evaluation, group psychotherapy, individual psychotherapy and crisis intervention. During her years in the acute care and inpatient psychiatry setting, she gained strong case management, utilization review, and clinical social work management skills while working with the interdisciplinary care team.

Christina also has a great deal of experience working in the realm of dementia and cognitive disorders. She served as a facilitator for a caregiver’s support group held for families and caregivers with a loved one diagnosed with dementia through the Alzheimer’s Association in addition to her clinically diverse direct practice experiences with older adults.

Christina practices a primary approach of solution and strengths based theories in her work with clients.

Robin is committed to helping people maximize their quality of life through supportive collaboration, open and objective communication, and tailored treatment goals focused on promoting positive change and self-empowerment. Robin’s nonjudgmental and authentic manner aims to provide a safe environment for each client. She provides gentle guidance to obtain a more balanced perspective on challenging life events, with specific focus on the intricacies that the late stage of life can often present.

Robin’s therapeutic framework is grounded in the strengths based perspective, Problem Solving Therapy (PST), and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques. However, each client’s treatment plan is unique and individualized, developed with mutual respect and collaboration.

Maria continued to grow professionally and continued to serve seniors but also pursued other areas of social work to compliment her skill set. Maria has worked in hospitals, long term care, home care, geriatric psychiatry, residential treatment for adolescents, administration, and in academia. Yet after pursuing other areas of practice, Maria has returned to her first love of working with seniors.

Maria’s clinical orientation is based in cognitive behavioral as well as solution focused therapeutic approaches. Finally, Maria uses a strengths perspective with every significantly unique patient she encounters.

Through various training programs, Irit has offered counseling and support in preparation for retirement, grief and bereavement, unemployment, addiction, domestic violence, immigration, and mental health issues. As a Hospice and Palliative Social Worker, Irit worked with terminally ill patients and their families, offered bereavement counseling to the bereaved families, co-facilitated bereavement support groups and volunteered in a family bereavement Camp STARS. This work included providing care in Personal Care homes, Assisted Living Facilities and Skilled Nursing Facilities, as well as private homes assisting terminally ill and chronically ill clients and their families with necessary planning, accessing community resources, and supporting them through their grief work.

At a very young age, she found herself listening to people’s stories and offering emotional support – people who were thirsty for someone to listen to them were often older lonely neighbors. There was always knowledge in abundance and a lesson to learn through a neighbor’s or, later in life, a client’s story. Admiration and respect for the older generation’s human resilience, hard work, and strength only grew with more exposure through professional encounters with older clients who shared their stories of how they have lived their lives, taking care of their families, building and protecting their country, surviving through hunger, The Great Depression, abuse, persecution, wars, struggles with immigration, retirement, learning to rely on others, and adaptation to life.

As we age, we endure many losses that become a challenge and sometimes can feel overwhelming in the life of an older person. In working with seniors, it is important to tap into strengths and tools that have been created over the years and have proven effective. Life is a story we create every day every minute and some parts can be re-written or changed to meet the new challenges. Irit utilizes Life Review, Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Therapy and relies on Family Systems in her work. Compassionate listening and communication are the key components to therapy as well.

Although not the only forms of therapy Rebecca provides, she is experienced in solution focused therapy, person-centered counseling, motivational interviewing, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The chosen methods of interventions for each client are dictated by the client’s problems, and Rebecca combines different methods, as the situation requires. She is committed to the empowerment of clients and has clients actively contribute to this process by involving clients in formulation of treatment plans. Working with differences is an underlying theme which informs her practice; she has experience working with a multi-cultural client group and actively supports the need for equal access to services. Rebecca promotes a non-judgmental approach, whilst also demonstrating appropriate empathy and warmth. She primarily sees clients living in Dekalb and Fulton Counties.

Cynthia’s interest in working with the elderly was cultivated initially during her experience as a dialysis social worker, and later solidified when she began to provide care for her aging mother who was experiencing multiple physical issues as well as Alzheimer’s Disease. She became familiar with the myriad challenges of caring for a loved one, including negotiating and managing the emotional and financial aspects involved in locating, securing, and ensuring appropriate, supportive, and loving care both inside the home and in care facilities. Throughout her personal journey with her mother, she became a strong eldercare advocate, gaining immeasurable respect and compassion for our seniors, recognizing, acknowledging, and understanding the emotional and painful realities that they and their families and caregivers face as they negotiate and find their way on this new and sometimes daunting path.

Cynthia’s philosophy is that life is not static but is instead always in transition, presenting us with many challenges, some of which may feel insurmountable. Sometimes help and guidance are needed along the way, and Cynthia sees it as her role to assist clients in navigating these challenges more successfully, helping them to establish realistic goals, and providing encouragement and a growing sense of empowerment as they move forward through their therapeutic process. Cynthia works with clients to guide them along life’s path by identifying their needs, building on their strengths, and collaboratively discovering, reinforcing, and optimizing the resiliency within each person. Cynthia’s philosophy is encapsulated in her following words: “Our seniors have so much to teach us, and they are an essential part of the cycle of life. Let us hold hands together in support of love and kindness and engender in each living person the respect and love that each one of us deserves.”

While with the Public Defender Jennifer traveled often and far to assess incarcerated clients including Georgia Regional Hospital, Decatur, and Central State Hospital in Milledgeville. Too often the clients were considered as a sum of their parts and not their wholeness or worth. This experience working in the complex judicial system that often times saw clients for their crime not their humanness, deepened Jennifer’s desire to continue the social work mission, “The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.” This desire continued as Jennifer worked for a large Atlanta hospital on the adult and geriatric behavioral health units. Again, in a very complex, and at times overwhelming system, she worked hard to best serve her patients taking on the role of case manager, care coordinator, discharge planner, psychotherapist, group leader and social worker. It was while working on the geriatric behavioral health unit Jennifer found her passion for working with seniors. This experience furthered Jennifer’s understanding of the complexities we encounter as we age and the importance of treatment with dignity and respect.

Working with older adults was a career path she had not considered as a young social worker but Jennifer fell in love with this population and had a desire and commitment to continue this important work by joining the Mindful Transitions team. Jennifer uses a variety of therapeutic interventions to assist her patients with humor tucked in for good measure. She believes in honesty, respect, and compassion when working with seniors to affect the changes they want to make. At times, a bit “geeky” by her own description, Jennifer enjoys reading and watching webinars to further her knowledge and experiences. Jennifer finds that the greatest teaching gifts have been given to her by her clients.

Sarah has spent most of her career working in hospice. She assisted patients and families as they adjusted after receiving a terminal diagnosis. She worked with families as they navigated end of life issues that impacted the entire family system, such as loss of autonomy and grief. She received the Advanced Palliative Hospice Social Worker Certification in 2019. Sarah also has experience working in home health and hospital settings. In these settings, she advocated for patients and assisted patients and caregivers in navigating the many challenges of the health care system.

Sarah believes in a collaborative relationship between client and therapist. Her work is most influenced by cognitive behavioral therapy and solution focused therapy techniques. She enjoys hearing clients’ unique stories and exploring their strengths.

He has extensive experience working with older adults to help them deal with chronic pain, grief, loss, difficult family issues, depression, and other mental health issues. He provides support to caregivers and works with families to help older adults stay in their homes and avoid nursing home placement.

Keith’s practical approach, humor, and patience supports individuals with both short-term interventions and longer-term therapy to enhance their lives and resolve barriers to success. Keith possesses special sensitivity to meeting diverse needs and uses a strength-based approach to empower individuals, couples, and families in building communication, promoting strong decision-making choices, repairing relationships, and developing support networks. Keith delivers compassionate care to clients with mental and physical health issues, including Alzheimer’s/dementia, crisis intervention, and trauma.