OUR STAFF
Lifepath Counseling & Wellness is a collaborative, experienced team of mental health professionals that provide positive, respectful, and person-centered therapeutic services. These services aid individuals and families in healing by identifying goals, and then tailoring services to meet their needs. Through counseling, individuals receive emotional support from a licensed professional who helps the client work to resolve conflicts with others, understand feelings such as anxiety and depression, and try out new solutions to old problems. The length of treatment depends on the complexity and severity of concerns.
Administrative Team
Tiffaney Giles
Managing Director, Owner
Tiffaney is responsible for the overall day to day operations of the office including; leadership, management, implementation and coordination of mental health service programs, as well as ensuring compliance with all state and federal regulations. Her main focus is ensuring that the organizational goals of Lifepath are dedicated to excellence and providing the highest-level of member care.
Elena Castro
Office Manager
Elena has dedicated the last 15 years of her life to clients in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery. She hopes to one day be traveling the world and spending her days on a warm beach somewhere. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and driving out to the coast where she gets the chance to enjoy the sand and sun. Elena helps manage day to day operations and is a support to the owners. Elena is excited to be a part of our growing team here at Lifepath Counseling & Wellness and works to provide a positive experience for every client that walks through our doors.
Theresa Rodriguez
Administrative Support
Teri is our admin assistant. She has a passion for helping others and meeting new people. She has been in different helping roles for over 13 years whether it be with people or animals. She is one of the kind and friendly faces that will greet you on the phone or in the office at Lifepath. Teri enjoys spending free time with her family and her fur baby Francis.
Emily Christiansen
Billing/Administrative Support
Emily joins the Lifepath team as an insurance billing specialist. She has over 10 years' experience working in healthcare in several different capacities. Emily is passionate about doing her part to contribute to the mental and physical health and wellbeing of the world. She loves being able to utilize her knowledge, skills, and abilities to optimize the healthcare experience for patients, providers, and everyone in between. Emily enjoys playing volleyball, skiing, and attending outdoor concerts. She is the proud mother of a beautiful, kind and compassionate daughter.
Amanda Wilcoxon MA
Adminstrative, Medical Assistant
Amanda has been a medical assistant for over 8 years and loves to help people. She ensures that all patients she assists, feel comfortable and confident that she will provide the best care possible. Like most native Idahoans, Amanda enjoys outdoor activities such as camping and fishing, and morel mushroom hunting. She also enjoys cooking, painting and working on DIY house projects. Her greatest accomplishment is being a step parent to 3 great kids. Two of them are in college, and the youngest is soon to be starting high school. "I love what I do, where I work, and cannot imagine being anywhere else."
Clinical Team
Ann Turner, LCSW
Clinical Director, Owner
Ann manages all clinical operations and the clinical supervision of staff. She believes that when meeting with clients, it should be in a non-judgmental and confidential setting. She has been trained in various intervention modalities including EMDR, CBT, Solution Focused therapy, DBT, and crisis intervention.
Michael Callender LCPC, NCC
Counselor, Therapist
Michael is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Hypnotherapist. He specializes in helping individuals, couples, and families develop creative solutions that are tailored to their needs. One size does not fit all, and he will work to help you find and develop your personalized path for growth and change. He has found success working with adults and teens experiencing grief & loss, life transitions, relationship difficulties, career & educational challenges, LGBTQ+ issues, multicultural and social justice issues, trauma, medical and physical health issues, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and creative/ artistic blocks.
Malinda Emery Woods, LMSW
Counselor, Therapist
Malinda is a Licensed Master Social Worker and she believes that even when you are doing the best that you can, you can always benefit from additional support and education to continue to reach your goals and manage your mental health. Her previous work experience includes working with individuals in psychiatric hospitals and crisis centers. In doing this, she provided support to adults in their substance abuse recovery, and worked with individuals who have experienced trauma. Her approach to counseling is person-centered and strengths-based. She is willing and excited to assist you through that process. She strives to create a calm and judgement free environment during counseling sessions. Some fun facts about her are that she love animals (especially her 4 cats), and loves traveling with her husband.
Jennifer Weiss LPC, NCC
Counselor, Therapist
Jennifer believes that all individuals have the ability to change and to heal. In her professional practice, she strives to create a safe, caring, non-judgmental environment where a strong therapeutic relationship can grow between herself and her clients. Through the therapeutic relationship, clients can learn to access their own inner resources to make long-term, meaningful changes in their lives. Jennifer loves working collaboratively with her clients, drawing from each client's individual needs, strengths, and life story to create a treatment approach unique to each individual. She incorporates Gestalt, Existential, and Jungian approaches, as well as an assortment of evidence based practices to help her clients create a more satisfying and meaningful life. Jennifer is passionate about working with a variety of issues including multicultural concerns, grief and loss, depression and anxiety, and spiritual and existential issues.
Matt Thorusen, LCSW
Counselor, Therapist
Matt believes that the most important aspect of therapy is the relationship between the therapist and the client. Because of this, Matt uses a trauma-informed strengths-based approach. In order to help every individual, find their own path to overcoming challenges, Matt works with them to help identify their strengths. By providing a safe place where people can share important parts of their stories, Matt helps guide them towards their journey of healing so that they feel empowered. Every set of circumstances is unique and participating in counseling can bring peace at the most challenging times in life. While using a person-centered and systems theory approach, Matt utilizes many therapy techniques including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy as well as other trauma-informed therapies to help individuals, families and couples reach their desired goals.
Katherine Medina-Guillen, LPC, NCC
Counselor, Therapist
Katherine works to provide a safe, empathetic, neutral space for her client(s) to discover where they are in life and where they would like to be; she does this by helping set realistic and measureable goals. She has experience working with individuals, families, and couples. Katherine believes the one thing that we all have in common is relationships. These relationships can often be some of the most difficult things we go through whether with our partner, family member, friends and even co-workers. Katherine has passionately worked with a diverse amount of couples and she utilizes the Gottman Method Couples Therapy approach. She offers multicultural services as well for various kinds of stressed, anxious and depressed individuals and relationships. Katherine is Bilingual and offers Spanish counseling. She utilizes evidence-based cognitive and behavioral strategies. Specialties Include: couples/marriage, families, affair, premarital and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual relationships.
Kinsey Nelson, LCPC, NCC
Counselor, Therapist, Community Programs Supervisor
As a Clinical therapist, Kinsey is passionate about helping individuals to access their best version of themselves. She works from an Adlerian framework, which encompasses the whole person and focuses on individual strengths and abilities. Kinsey believes that we all posses the power to transform ourselves, and counseling can assist with uncovering beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, which no longer serve us in order to access our highest potential. Kinsey feels that the most important piece of the therapeutic puzzle starts with the therapeutic relationship. By creating a safe, space filled with genuine, unconditional positive regard and trust, the ability to tap in to our inner self is limitless. She has extensive experience working with adults, families, and children ages 3-17 years utilizing her passion for expressive therapies to include Play therapy, Sandtray therapy, and Art therapy, suitable to each individual’s specific needs. Kinsey also has been trained in CBT, MI, MRT, DBT, EMDR, and ACRA, and has significant experience working with individuals and families struggling with substance use and addiction, co-occurring disorders, domestic violence, complex trauma, relationship issues, mental health concerns, and general life stressors.
Sarah Cowman, LMSW
Counselor, Therapist
Sarah is a Licensed Master of Social work, currently pursuing her clinical Social Work License. She has a background in working with children and adolescents, and is passionate about helping individuals navigate their goals for therapy while improving their overall quality of life. Sarah combines talk therapy with interactive modalities such as play and art to assist individuals in further expressing their emotions. Sarah uses a judgement free approach, meeting her clients where they are at, while helping them to develop solutions that are unique to who they are as an individual. She uses evidenced-based cognitive and behavioral strategies, and her specialties include: anxiety, depression, conduct disorders, ADHD, substance use and addiction, and co-occurring disorders.
George Nickel, LMSW
Counselor, Therapist
George is currently working on his clinical license after spending the last decade working in the veteran community involved in assisting those dealing with substance abuse and trauma. George takes a humanistic approach to help clients achieve self-actualization and find their authentic self to find fulfillment and purpose. George’s intent is to create an empathetic, supportive, and trusting environment where a client can share without judgment.
Russ Adams, Ph.D LMFTs
Counselor, Therapist
Russ is a counselor who was trained originally as a Marriage and Family Therapist. He has worked as a counselor in various settings over the past 30 years. He works with individuals, couples and families on many different issues including conflict resolution, rebuilding and improving relationships, communication, grief and loss, trauma, divorce adjustment, living with a chronic illness, brain injury and stroke recovery, military family issues, end of life issues, depression, anxiety, living with a mental health issue successfully, the impact of change in one’s life, spirituality, and individual growth.
In addition to his skills as a counselor, Russ is trained in, and uses EMDR, Hypnosis and Neurolinguistic Programming, and Life Coaching. Finally, Russ is an approved supervisor for counselors and served in that capacity has the past 12 years.
Aaron Thomason FNP, PMHNP
Aaron is an FNP specializing in Psychiatry. Aaron is passionate about educating his patients and helping patients develop an individualized evidence-based plan of care. He believes in the importance of a patient-provider partnership and working with a team to treat the different factors that affect our mental health.
Aaron loves to listen to good music, and loves just about anything outdoors, especially when done with his family. He was raised in Idaho and loves serving the people here. Aaron is also Bilingual in Spanish.
Stephen Zeimantz, DNP
Psychiatric Medication Management
Katie (Griffy) Harp FNP, PMHNP
Psychiatric Medication Management
Counseling Interns
Augustine
Augustine Ruff (she/her) is passionate about supporting people through life challenges that inevitably come to us all. She has experience working with life transitions, low self-esteem, anxiety, interpersonal relationships, faith crisis, LGBTQ+ issues, emotional health and wellness, and perfectionism. Her approach is informed by mindfulness practices, motivational interviewing (MI), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), solution-focused therapy (SFT), and internal family systems (IFS). Augustine strongly believes that you are the expert in your own life, and that everything you need for success already exists within you. As a social worker, Augustine employs a holistic, systems approach with her clients, incorporating their strengths and context into the equation. This quote by Brené Brown describes the therapeutic atmosphere Augustine hopes to create in session: "Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we'll ever do."
Augustine received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University and is currently pursuing her Master's in Social Work with Arizona State University. Outside of the office, Augustine enjoys the "extras" in life, including all things music, reading, plants, cooking/baking, and traveling with her husband.
Laurie
As a clinical mental health counseling intern at Lifepath, she believes therapy can help navigate the rough spots in life and bring people into a deeper relationship with themselves and with their relationships. She integrates a variety of therapeutic modalities including the use of writing as a tool for healing. Her focus is to help individuals express, hear and value their uniqueness and learn adaptive coping skills to lead the life they desire. In session, together with the client she will find ways to support growth and healing by tuning into individual needs, strengths and goals. This is all done with non-judgmental awareness to find a way forward for the journey. She supports an individual's exploration and integration of life's challenges to find the keys to growth and meaning for each person. Her background has been in the realm of the helping professions with a 30 yr history in nursing and certification in poetry therapy.
Katie
Katie earned her BA in Film Production in 2007 with San Francisco State University, later pursued her MFA in fine art and graphic design with Academy of Art University. She has been studying Eastern Qigong and Tai Chi practices for the past 8 years. She is currently in her final semester, completing a master of arts in counseling with Saybrook University, which is well known for cultural competency, humility and holistic approaches to mental health and other medical fields. She combines a creative, whole-person, integrative, and culturally competent approach to supporting adolescent and adult individuals and couples to find their true identities, salient values, healing and inner light strength as they navigate life and mental health challenges. She has supported clients with trauma, anxiety, depression, family system challenges, attachment styles, PTSD, and LGBTQ+. She has used a variety of modalities depending on the needs of the client(s), including (but not limited to), relational cultural therapy (RCT), meditation and Eastern theory mindfulness practices, motivational interviewing (MI), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), art therapy, genograms, family systems theory, and solution-focused therapy (SFT).
Community Program Leads
Tedi Hernandez
Community Programs Lead, Peer Support, Family Supports Provider
Tedi follows a belief that everyone with a mental illness can recover, it just takes focusing on strengths and working with the illness instead of against it. With support in reprogramming oneself, a person can find alternative methods that fit their needs. This can provide them a different way of seeing issues and problems. Tedi provides a unique perspective that will assist with and guide you to a new way of thought, processes, and success. Tedi is in recovery from a mental illness herself and uses her own experiences as a tool for assisting others through the Peer Support services that she provides.
Leslie: Community Interpreter Program Coordinator
Peer Support Specialist, CBRS, Case Manager
Leslie graduated from BSU with Bachelors in Sociology. She uses a mixture of what she has learned through school, her own experiences, and those experiences of others to help and support the people that she works with in recovery. In her off time she enjoys spending time working in her yard and enjoying the outdoors with friends and family. Leslie lives by the motto, “Work hard for what you want because it won't come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive”. Leah LaBelle