Stephanie Childress, Licensed Psychotherapist, dual licensed LPCC and LADC.
Stephanie uses she/her pronouns ~~ J'utilise le pronom elle
This information can help determine if we might work well together. Stephanie has years of clinical experience that allows her to offer a greater understanding to explore your areas of need.
Professional Values
Stephanie views her professional values as safety containers for those she works with. Stephanie is a non-pathologizing, anti-racist, 2SLGBTQQIA+ affirming therapist who practices through a social justice lens. Stephanie strives to create an environment where her patients feel respected, empowered, and understood, while recognizing the impact that culture, identity, systems, and lived experiences have on mental health and well-being.
Stephanie’s approach to therapy is person-centered, trauma-informed, and grounded in both somatic healing and neuroscience. Stephanie believes that understanding how our brains, bodies, relationships, and experiences shape us is essential to creating meaningful and lasting change.
Stephanie is an interactive therapist. She wants to learn about you, hear your story, understand the experiences that have shaped you, and help you recognize the patterns that may no longer serve you. Stephanie collaborates with her patients to rewrite trauma narratives, build self-compassion, strengthen resilience, and reconnect with the parts of themselves that have been lost, silenced, or burdened by life's challenges.
Stephanie provides a trauma-informed space that honors your lived experience and supports healing through safety, connection, curiosity, and empowerment.
Stephanie’s Therapeutic Approach
By integrating techniques from multiple therapeutic approaches, I tailor treatment to your individual needs, strengths, goals, and preferences.
Her work is informed by:
Person-Centered Therapy
Existential Therapy
Gestalt Therapy
Hakomi-Informed Principles
Polyvagal Theory
Somatic Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Brainspotting
Bibliotherapy (Book Therapy)
Her work has a strong somatic and neuroscience foundation. She provides psychoeducation on nervous system functioning, attachment, trauma, and resilience so that clients can better understand their experiences and develop greater self-compassion.
Somatic Healing
Drawing from Hakomi principles and Polyvagal Theory, she help clients understand the relationship between the mind, body, emotions, and nervous system.
This work may include:
Understanding fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and shutdown responses
Learning nervous system regulation skills
Increasing awareness of bodily sensations and emotional experiences
Developing grounding and mindfulness practices
Building resilience through self-compassion and self-awareness
Exploring how trauma and life experiences may be carried in the body
Book Therapy
Stephanie is a bibliophile (lover and collector of books) and a logophile (lover of words and language). Because of her love of reading and literature, she incorporates this into her therapy, called bibliotherapy, what she calls Book Therapy.
This may include reading, journaling, reflective writing, podcasts, articles, or creative exercises between sessions to deepen insight and keep the work alive outside the therapy office.
Areas of Specialization
Trauma and Complex Trauma
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Intimate Partner Betrayal and Betrayal Trauma
Addiction and Recovery Therapy
Process Addictions
The cross-connection of Addiction and Compulsive Behaviors
Anxiety Disorders
Depression
Gambling
Burnout and Vicarious Trauma
Licensed Professional Health Programs (HPSP)
Family Systems and Addiction
Neurodiversity and Special Needs Advocacy
Stephanie’s approach to addiction therapy is through an intersectional lens, helping clients understand the deeper connections between addictive behaviors, OCD-related patterns, trauma, attachment wounds, nervous system dysregulation, and emotional survival strategies.
This includes work with:
Substance Use Disorders
Gambling Addiction
Shopping and Spending Compulsions
Hypersexual and Compulsive Sexual Behaviors
Gaming and Technology Addiction
Other Process Addictions and Compulsive Behaviors
Evaluations and Professional Collaboration
Stephanie conducts:
Substance Use Disorder Evaluations (also called Chemical Health Assessments)
Forensic Substance Use Evaluations
Diagnostic Assessments
Health Professionals Services Program (HPSP)
Stephanie works with licensed professionals participating in the Health Professionals Services Program (HPSP), monitoring and collaborating with HPSP regarding treatment recommendations and quarterly reporting requirements.
For patients involved in the legal system, she communicates and collaborates with attorneys, probation officers, case managers, and other professionals as needed.
Advocacy
Stephanie is a passionate advocate for special needs awareness, disability rights, and neurodiversity. This advocacy is reflected in both her professional work and personal life.
Minnesota-approved Gambling Treatment Provider
Stephanie is a Minnesota-approved Gambling Treatment Provider, having completed specialized training through the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
Public Speaking
Wernicke Encephalopathy
Korsakoff Syndrome
Addiction and Family Systems
Land Acknowledgment
Stephanie’s practice is located on the ancestral homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. She acknowledges their enduring relationship to this land and honors the history, cultures, and contributions of Indigenous communities past, present, and future.