Dr. Dee is a general practitioner therapist with a wealth of clinical and work experience in hospital intake departments, inpatient, outpatient, private practice, adult day treatment program, residential, agency, and school settings. She has provided treatment for clients who struggle with mild, moderate, severe, and chronic mental illnesses and develop­mental disabilities including: Depression, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Developmental Disabilities, behavioral problems, relationship issues, and religious/spiritual issues.

Dr. Dee provides therapy from an integrative approach, primarily utilizing Person-Centered and Cogni­tive Behavioral approaches to therapy. This involves using a non-directive approach while providing a safe therapeutic environ­ment for the client to decide the direction of his or her life and increase self-awareness. When the client is ready, Dr. Dee introduces effective coping skills for the self-identified problem areas. Dr. Dee enjoys the integration of issues of religion/spirituality into treatment and does so as the client desires.

Dr. Dee has also taught graduate-level counseling psychology courses and developed training sites at a university and community in Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia. Dr. Dee’s international experiences enhance her passion to work from a culturally-sensitive perspective and diversity model.

Dr. Dee is a Pan-Afrikan and lives to reclaim her African heritage and identity.  Her passion is to help other people of African ancestral descent make the necessary connections to embrace their origins, identity, and understand their current conditions.  Dr. Dee loves to travel, especially throughout the continent of Africa. Dr. Dee’s love for music and the arts balances out life’s occasional heaviness.

**Research Interest

• Integration of faith and practice with black parishioners

• Bridging the gap between Africans born in American and Africans born on the continent of Africa

**Dr. Desta is a License-eligible Clinical Psychologist and also Caseworker with Illinois Department of Human Services