Jody Hansen
VerifiedMA, LPC, NCC
Counselor/Therapist
Chesterfield, USA
Answers questions in Adolescent Issues · Anxiety · Co-Occurring Disorders
About Jody Hansen
I am a Board Certified Licensed Counselor with a vast array of experience including:
-Consulting with the Dr. Phil Show and providing services to his client
-Adjunct Professor in Graduate School Counseling program
-Crisis counselor for the United States Postal Service
-Lead clinician for an outpatient clinic.
I am a member of the following: American Psychological Assn., National Board for Certified Counselors, Missouri Mental Health Counselors Assn, and the American Counseling Association.
I believe that each client has needs, goals and a comfort level specific to them. The therapeutic interventions utilized must be tailored to the individual and their specific situation. Our collaborative effort results in clients that are happier and are more fulfilled in life.
What I do
NOW TELEHEALTH ONLY PRACTICE! Convenient, private, anywhere!
I believe that each person has needs, goals and a comfort level specific to them. The therapeutic interventions utilized must be tailored to the individual and their specific situation. Our collaborative effort results in individuals that are happier and are more fulfilled in life.
My story
I am a Board Certified Licensed Counselor with a vast array of experience including:
-Consulting with the Dr. Phil Show and providing services to his client
-Adjunct Professor in Graduate School Counseling program
-Crisis counselor for the United States Postal Service
-Lead clinician for an outpatient clinic.
I am a member of the following: American Psychological Assn., National Board for Certified Counselors, Missouri Mental Health Counselors Assn, and the American Counseling Association.
I believe that each client has needs, goals and a comfort level specific to them. The therapeutic interventions utilized must be tailored to the individual and their specific situation. Our collaborative effort results in clients that are happier and are more fulfilled in life.
Why life is worth living
You never know how you life can positively impact others. You matter. Your life matters!
Treatment Offered
Specialties
Therapy approaches
Patient population
Modalities
Answered Questions(10)
Pets, anxiety and depression
My wife has GAD and moderate depression. She is on Xanax and St. John’s Wort. I am considering buying a dog for the family. I am not buying it specifically to help with my wife’s depression but I am hoping that a puppy in the house and the touching/petting and human contact that happens with a new dog will be uplifting for her. I am planning on doing all of the caretaking for the new dog so it should not prove overwhelming for her. This is something I try to do so she can use her limited energy on things that are most beneficial to her. But what I want to know is if there is any research that says that it is helpful for depressed/anxious people to have pets. Is it beneficial, neutral or detrimental. I cannot seem to get a clear answer on this subject. Thank you. John, P in Chicago.
Read answer →Buzzed by "diet pills"
My friend swears by these diet pills she gets over the internet. She says they give her an energy buzz and really reduce her appetite. I keep telling her they can’t be safe but she says I am overreacting and don’t know what I’m talking about and that she’s been talking them for more than 2 months now, has lost like 10 pounds and hasn’t experienced any side effects. Is there such a thing as a safe diet pill that really works to help people lose weight? Should I be worried that she is using these pills for so long and that really who knows where they come from? I am worried about her but she won’t listen to me. I have been thinking about talking to her parents but this is such a betrayal of her trust so I do not want to do this if she is right and I am wrong.
Read answer →ADHD Control
I have had a hard time in the past with meth and cigarettes and cocaine and drinking. I got clean a few years ago but I have had a hard time keeping a job since then. My problem is I tend to lose focus and so I am not very good at following directions. I think I have things together and then at the end I get in trouble for forgetting half of what I was supposed to be doing. I was like this in school as well. It seems strange, but when using I seemed more able to keep things straight than I am now. Not that I was able to really hold down a job then either. My girlfriend now works as a teacher’s assistant for special needs kids. She says the way I am is exactly like a lot of the kids that come to her with ADHD. Since she said this I have been reading up on ADHD on the internet and it the symptoms of ADHD seem to match who I am exactly. Maybe if I can get my ADHD cured I can have more luck on the job. But the problem is the medication for ADHD is something that I know can be abused. I have even used Ritalin once or twice. I am not sure I could stay off meth if I had that little taste of speed every day. Is there any way to control ADHD without using drugs?
Read answer →Daughter dressing inappropriately. What do I do?
We are a Christian family. My daughter is 14 and we have always had a good relationship. This year she has started to dress very provocatively. It makes me very uncomfortable and we have had a number of discussions about why dressing like a street hooker is not appropriate when going to school or to the mall. The fact that her school will allow this is another story for another day. We have also had a number of very intense arguments over the clothes she chooses to wear. The problem is, no matter how strict I am on the family dress code I cannot watch her 24 hours a day and as soon as she is out of our sight she will just head to her friend’s house and change into what she really wants to wear. What can I do to make her realize that dressing so sexily at her age is not going to get her the right kind of attention and will only lead to bad things?
Read answer →More than just my ED, where do I go?
I've struggled with anorexia for nearly twelve years, and have been in and out of treatment in the past two years - missing precious years of college (i know, my life is more important blah blah), but my true question is, after my stay at a treatment facility that was in your state, I learned of a lot more trauma and dissociative amnesia, and identity alteration. My internal system started going haywire and I began switching into mainly child parts who were trying to express the trauma. My insurance decided that after my DD-NOS diagnosis that I was not benefiting from that programme (although I think it is the best place I've been out of the many I've gone to..) I was sent back to my parents' house (an unsafe environment, due to substance abuse (not myself) and abuse, which staff knew when they sent me there) I am struggling to find options of treatment centers that will work with both my ED (though it is not the primary issue, I still do need to gain weight and work on behaviors), as well as trauma and be able to work with dissociative patients.. So many places i've been referred to have denied me (Sierra Tucson, Laureate, Rogers, Life Healing Center (well they accepted me but it costs too much despite insurance), Center for Change, Renfrew, Remuda, and the ERC in Denver. Do you know of any other places I can look into? I really need to get into somewhere as soon as possible, and though it's not necessary, I would love to be back in the New England area, where I live normally. Thank you so much for your help.
Read answer →Son with bipolar using marijuana
My son is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and he is medicated and stabilized and doing well away at living at home while attending community college. He had previously attended university and lived in the dorms and it was the meltdown there, that I think was precipitated by a lot of drug and alcohol use, which led to his dropping out of school and to his diagnosis and treatment. His doctor has instructed him very clearly to avoid alcohol and drugs as they can reduce the effectiveness of his medications and can even lead to manic or depressive episodes. But last night I surprised my son in his room and found him smoking marijuana. He was using a pretty impressive bong contraption to smoke it, so it is pretty clear to me that because he has this machine to smoke with he is smoking marijuana fairly often. He says that he has tried drinking and smoking pot on his meds and that alcohol does make him feel worse but that marijuana just relaxes him and doesn’t seem to affect the effectiveness of his meds. I am not sure. He is doing pretty well on his own and I don’t want to treat him like a baby but on the other hand things were pretty bad for a while and I really don’t want to see him so depressed like he was before. How concerned should I be by his using marijuana?
Read answer →Overeating daughter needs counseling
My daughter is quite overweight and I believe that she uses food as a way to control her emotions. She will eat a normal amount at dinner but will often sneak into the kitchen later in the night and eat quite a lot by herself later on. My husband, my son and myself are not overweight, so I do not believe that she has a metabolic condition. We have tried getting her to exercise with us and various whole family diets but they do not work because they do not seem to address the root cause of the overeating. I think she would benefit from some sort of food counseling, but I do not think she has an eating disorder so I am not sure what type of help she needs. Can you recommend a type of therapist or therapy type that fits her needs?
Read answer →Exposing Teenagers to Medical Marijuana
My mother has suffered with arthritis for years. About a year ago her doctor encouraged her to try medical marijuana as an alternative treatment that might work to help diminish her pain. She was very reluctant to try it, always having been very anti-drug and straight laced, but she did try it and she finds that it helps her. So that it great and I am very happy for her. The problem I have is that she has taken a 180 degree turn on marijuana and now wants to sing its praises to anyone who will listen. Which would be fine, but that ‘anyone’ happens to include my 12 and 15 year old boys who I don’t feel need any pro-drug encouragement at this stage in their lives. I have asked her to stop but she says she isn’t going to hide her medicine in her own house or feel ashamed for taking something that helps her so much to control her arthritis, so she will even use in front of everyone when we come over. I can see her point, but I wish she could see mine. My husband is furious with her for all of this and thinks she is completely irresponsible and he is pushing me to stop letting her expose the boys to drugs and…and then I defend her because I feel like he’s not being totally fair and we end up fighting and so her ‘medicine’ has even become a problem within my marriage. We have always been a close knit family who visits each other frequently as we live within walking distance of each others' homes, but I am seriously considering not bringing the boys over any more. They’d hate it and she’d hate it and I’d feel terrible for doing it but I don’t know what else to do if she won’t listen to reason. Should I let the boys go over when I know they may be exposed to marijuana when they do?
Read answer →Daughter is cutting
I had seen my daughter with some scratches on her arms a couple of times recently but hadn’t thought much of it. But then yesterday, when she thought I was at work but I had actually come home with a headache, I walked into her room and found her cutting her arm with a razor blade. At first I thought she was trying to kill herself and I went nuts but then she calmed me down and tried to tell me that it was no big deal and that she was just bored and it was just something to do. I tried to act calm on the outside to keep the dialogue going, but inside I am really worried and freaked out about the whole thing. Her mom died last year and it’s been just her and me and her mom would have known a lot better than me what to do here. She is still the super achiever she always was, but the losing her mom really changed her and she never quite seemed to get her old happiness back. I want her to see somebody, but I have no idea what type of doctor or therapist works with this kind of stuff. Can you tell me who is the best type of person to help her?
Read answer →Online EMDR?
I suffer from PTSD from a really bad accident I was a few months ago. I was reading that EMDR can help people to get over traumatic memories and I think that need some help. However, there is no one offering EMDR within reasonable driving distance of my home. I have been looking at internet therapy as a possibility that might work for me, but is EMDR something that can be done over the internet?
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