Cascade Academy is excited to announce an addition to our clinical team! Amy Griffin, MS, EdS, CMHC comes to Cascade with 7 years of clinical experience and 5 years working with adolescents and families. Amy received her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Psychology at Florida State University in 2010. After working at the FSU College of Medicine in Faculty Development, she returned to graduate school in 2012 where she would go on to pursue a combined Masters and Education Specialist degree in Clinical Mental Health, which she completed in 2014 at FSU. Her clinical training is primarily founded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and most recently Exposure and Response Prevention.
Amy found a home working with adolescents in the past 5 years. While working towards her hours for state licensure, she worked underneath board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, Lisa Fraleigh, D.O. treating teen girls with eating disorders, among a more general set of clinical presentations. Since that time, she has continued to work with adolescents in various treatment settings including outpatient, intensive outpatient, day treatment, and acute psychiatric hospitalization.
As a teen struggling with anxiety herself, she eventually found relief from panic attacks via exposure therapy which she participated in while in college. Having experienced first hand the joy in life that can be found in becoming free from debilitating anxiety, she is committed to a life of helping others to do the same.
Amy grew up in the paradise of the Florida Keys and often found sanctuary from her own anxiety on the ocean floor. As a scuba diver, she grew to have a profound respect and appreciation for nature and the serenity that our natural surroundings bring. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Utah’s natural beauty with her fiance, Mike, and their 3 year-old Aussiedoodle, Rudy GoDog.
The core of Amy’s approach to treatment is client-centered. She believes that potential is limitless when clients feel safe, understood, and celebrated. She seeks to accomplish this through empathy, curiosity, and humor.
Her love for what she does can be best summed up in a quote by a clinician and author whom she greatly admires, Irvin D. Yalom. He writes, “Life as a therapist is a life of service in which we daily transcend our personal wishes and turn our gaze toward the needs and growth of the other. We take pleasure not only in the growth of our patient but also in the ripple effect—the salutary influence our patients have upon those whom they touch in life.” She looks forward to helping the clients at Cascade start positive changes of their own by embracing life with courage and joy.