MEET OUR TEAM
OUR CLINICAL TEAM. MEETING YOU WHERE YOU ARE.
OUR CLINICAL TEAM
Claire Burnham, LCSW
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Claire (she/her) is Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 6 years of experience providing mental health treatment for adolescents and adults in outpatient settings.
She focuses on establishing a compassionate, supportive therapeutic relationship to best foster growth and self esteem. She recognizes that racial, economic, and other social injustices deeply impact mental health and strives to help individuals cope in the best way possible.
She is a person-centered, strengths based therapist who also uses evidence based interventions like CBT, motivational interviewing, DBT, and trauma informed approaches. She is passionate about helping others find meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
Anika Dottin-Wilson, LCSW
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Anika (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 5 years’ experience working with youth, adults, and families.
Anika has worked in a variety of settings including outpatient, in-home, shelter, and most recently in-school. Through these varied settings she has been able to hone her therapeutic skills to support a wide variety of clients and populations.
Anika specializes in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPRACS), while utilizing aspects of mindfulness and meditation.
Katie Aikens, LCSW
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Katie (she/her) is a NYS License Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and her experience includes working with youth, adults, and families in inpatient and school settings.
Katie has worked with individuals of all backgrounds and developmental stages in addressing past trauma, developing healthy relationships, and building communication skills. She is passionate about helping clients define what a “life worth living” means for them. Katie is also committed to continually developing her awareness of how power, privilege, and systemic injustice interact to impact her clients.
Katie’s approach is working collaboratively to make folks feel empowered and supported. She utilizes a variety of interventions including DBT, CBT, Narrative Therapy, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, and Strengths-Based Approaches.
Jacquelyn Genus, LMHC
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Jacquelyn (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with experience working with youth, adults, and families.
Jacquelyn has worked in different settings helping individuals and families navigate life after trauma and life changing events. She strives to hold a safe and culturally sensitive space where individuals can process life in a meaningful way as they are on their healing journey.
Jacquelyn uses a person-centered approach to help individuals meet their counseling goals. She also is a native Spanish speaker and is able to provide sessions in Spanish which allows native speakers to access their emotional language during their healing journey.
Briana Gruspier, LCSW-R
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Briana (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-R) with over 9 years experience working with adolescents, adults and the families of individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders. She is also a Certified Grief Counselor.
Briana’s goal as a therapist is to create a judgment free space for her clients to feel supported as they work on their goals. Briana’s focus is to help her clients identify the strengths they have while also creating new skills they can use to handle their emotions in a more positive way. Briana’s areas of specialty include addiction and recovery, grief and loss, codependency, depression.
Along with those struggling with anxiety, interpersonal conflicts, life transitions and self-esteem concerns too. She utilizes the treatment modalities of CBT, DBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Strengths-Based Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Narrative Therapy.
Natalie Capasse Modasra, LCSW
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Natalie (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with experience working with adults facing anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and trauma.
Natalie provides a warm, empathetic, and non-judgmental space where clients can explore their thoughts and emotions openly. She takes an integrative, client-centered approach, utilizing ACT, CBT, and Motivational Interviewing to meet the unique needs of each client.
Natalie specializes in anxiety, depression, and life transitions and is passionate about helping individuals build on their strengths to navigate challenges and achieve meaningful growth.
Kelsey Venditto, LCSW
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Kelsey (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) specializing in helping youth and young adults (ages 10-25) navigate personal relationships, stress, and past trauma.
Kelsey provides a compassionate, non-judgmental environment for clients to build self-esteem, develop coping strategies, and improve decision-making skills. Kelsey uses CBT, Solution-Focused therapy, and Motivational Interviewing to support clients in managing anxiety, depression, family conflict, and trauma.
Kelsey is committed to helping individuals build confidence, strengthen relationships, and navigate life transitions with resilience.
Meg Grandy, LMSW
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Meg (they/she) is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience in a variety of social work and therapy settings.
Their experience includes supporting those who are houseless transition back into the community, people in recovery toward reaching their self-defined success, and individuals/families as they navigate mental health diagnoses.
Meg uses a variety of approaches, such as DBT, ACT, and person-centered therapy, and offers a supportive, collaborative space to process, decompress, and heal. Meg understands that the systems that exist in the world create different experiences and mindsets for every individual. They work to dismantle the systems of injustice that create inequity in their community and beyond.
*Supervised by Claire Burnham
Ali Perry, LMSW
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Ali (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with adolescents in a school setting and adults in an outpatient setting.
Ali’s work focuses on helping individuals explore coping skills for mental health symptoms, life transitions, relationship challenges, systemic injustices, and other life stressors. Ali believes that building rapport and creating a safe space for individuals to express themselves are key to a successful therapeutic experience.
Ali uses a collaborative, strength-based approach to empower individuals to achieve their counseling goals. She uses a variety of approaches including CBT, DBT, and Trauma Informed Approaches in her work.
*Supervised by Claire Burnham
Sophie Jin, LMSW
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Sophie (she/her) is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) who has experience working with adolescents and adults in community agencies, outpatient settings, and healthcare organizations.
Sophie’s experience includes assessing and treating mental health concerns, providing medication management for commonly prescribed psychotropic medications, and working with Veterans transitioning back into civilian life.
Sophie utilizes an integrative approach to meet the unique needs of her clients, incorporating ACT, CBT, DBT and person-centered approaches. Her ultimate goal is to foster a collaborative and culturally sensitive space where clients feel empowered and safe in their healing journeys. She is passionate about recognizing and addressing the immense impact that systemic injustices have on individuals and their mental health.
*Supervised by Anika Dottin-Wilson
Emilia Hahn-Zollo, LMSW
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Emilia (she/her) is NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with adolescents, young adults and adults in residential, community and outpatient programs.
Emilia has been assisting individuals to understand and cope with mental health symptoms and life stressors. Through that experience she learned to create a safe space and therapeutic environment for clients.
Emilia utilizes a holistic and person-centered approach. Emilia uses CBT, DBT, and task-centered therapy to assist her clients. Emilia is passionate about breaking the stigma when it comes to mental health.
*Supervised by Anika Dottin-Wilson
Gia Recco, LMSW
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Gia is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with school-aged children, families, and adults.
Gia focuses on meeting clients where they are on their unique journeys toward mental well-being. She believes that everyone has the capacity for growth and personal transformation, and is committed to helping individuals who may be feeling stuck in their current circumstances.
Gia offers a compassionate and non-judgmental space for clients to process emotions, develop coping skills, and foster personal development. She specializes in CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as well as Exposure and Response Based Prevention Therapy (ERPT) for OCD.
*Supervised by Claire Burnham
Alexandra Dorsi, LMSW
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Alex is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with children, adolescents, and adults.
Alex focuses on working collaboratively with clients to help uncover ways in which they can live more closely to their values, express themselves authentically, and overcome the thoughts and patterns of behavior that are no longer serving them.
Alex's approach prioritizes fostering a warm, non-judgmental therapeutic relationship using a variety of approaches, such as CBT, TF-CBT, mindfulness-based techniques, strengths-based practices, social justice frameworks and emotion-focused techniques.
*Supervised by Claire Burnham
Shaelynn Kelly, LMSW
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Shaelynn is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with children, adolescents, and families in a variety of settings.
Shaelynn believes establishing trust and building a strong and supportive relationship are essential to having a positive therapy experience. She prioritizes making the therapeutic space feel accessible and safe for people of all backgrounds and developmental stages.
Shaelynn uses a combination of person-centered, strengths-based, and solution focused modalities with the therapeutic relationship always at the center. She also maintains mindfulness of how systemic issues pertaining to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and economic status impact all of us and welcomes conversations on these topics in the therapy office.
*Supervised by Anika Dottin-Wilson
Taylor Whitesell, LMSW
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Taylor is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families in a variety of settings.
Taylor's approach focuses on healing within the therapeutic relationship by assisting clients on the journey to self-understanding, acceptance, appreciation, and love. With the client as the expert and historian, Taylor believes in working collaboratively to allow clients to gain a better understanding of themselves through the context of their unique experiences, social and societal influences, and the rewriting of a more compassionate understanding of themselves.
Taylor utilizes numerous approaches, including CBT, DBT and narrative therapy, as well as strengths-based, person-centered, solution-focused, and relationship-based techniques.
*Supervised by Anika Dottin-Wilson
Kelly Lefsyk, LMSW
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Kelly is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with adults, caregivers, and families.
Kelly is passionate about empowering clients to learn healthy coping and communication skills to manage stress and anxiety, address traumatic experiences, and improve relationships with both oneself and others.
Kelly’s approach values the importance of building and maintaining a supportive and collaborative therapeutic relationship. To do so, she uses a combination of person-centered, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches.
*Supervised by Katie Aikens
Myra King-Kerge, LMSW
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Myra is a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with experience working with adults in a variety of social work and therapy settings.
Myra believes trust, collaboration and a good dose of humor is key to a good therapeutic relationship. Myra utilizes a holistic and anti-oppression approach, as well as a Health at Every Size philosophy to help clients rediscover the mind-body connection and how it can inform mental wellness.
Myra draws from relational, psychodynamic, CBT, mindfulness, existential, and somatic therapies to create a collaborative approach that best utilizes the strengths her clients already have.
*Supervised by Katie Aikens
OUR ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM
Douglas Roest-Gyimah, LCSW
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Douglas is a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-R) and has over a decade of experience working in human-services settings.
That experience ranges from addiction treatment to therapy in prisons and schools. Finally, Douglas has had the pleasure of starting a mental health practice from the ground up. His new passion is to create an awesome workplace and company culture for social workers and support staff.
In addition to running Upstate Counseling, Douglas is an avid woodworker, and also coaches other small business owners.
Nina Smith
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Nina is a graduate of Clarkson University where she received her Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused in Health Management. Nina has 8+ years of education specifically focused in health care management and administration.
Throughout her professional experience, Nina has focused her work in the field of mental health. She is passionate about studying discrepancies in the delivery of care among underserved populations and is eager to find solutions to expand access to care.
In her free time, Nina enjoys spending time with friends, family, and her kittens, Astro and Archie!
Shannon Vandebogart
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Shannon is Upstate Counseling's Administrative Assistant and handles all things related to intake and scheduling new clients. Shannon has 9+ years of professional experience on both the clinical and administrative side of health care delivery.
In her free time, Shannon enjoys crocheting and doing puzzles with her family.
Jack Bruce
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Jack is an Executive Assistant at Upstate Counseling, and contributes to the smooth, efficient operation of the company. Jack assists executive staff with creation and implementation of multiple different processes, and he utilizes his education in Business Administration to contribute to the mission.
In Jack's free time, he is an avid drummer and creates drumming content on YouTube and other social media platforms.