Qualified Mental Health Professionals / Professional Counselor Associates
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Mara Benson, MS, NCC
​Mara Benson earned a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University. As a therapist Mara works to create an accepting, collaborative and empowering environment in which clients can develop towards self-understanding, self-compassion and healing. Mara’s approach to counseling is based in the belief that both our unique perspectives and our interaction with the world around us shape our experiences. Mara uses eclectic tools drawn from Person Centered, Feminist, Narrative, Creative Arts Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, DBT and Attachment modalities. Mara brings empathy, curiosity and creativity to her work with children, families and adults who are seeking support for mental health, adapting to life’s changes, parenting challenges, and seeking overall growth. Outside of the counseling room, Mara spends her time with her fantastic husband and two incredible kids exploring the beauty of Southern Oregon (where she was born and raised), gardening, and dusting off her skills as a trained Pastry Chef.​​

Desiree Coutinho, CSWA (she/they)​

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​Desiree completed her Masters Degree in Social Work from Portland State University. She is passionate about guiding clients through embodied grief processes, as a powerful tool for individual and collective healing. Desiree draws upon somatic, creative arts, narrative, trauma focused-cognitive behavioral therapy, internal family systems, mindfulness, play and eco-therapy techniques in her therapeutic approach. She works closely with clients to cultivate self-acceptance, stability, inspiration, and growth.  Desiree’s experience working with youth and families in a day treatment milieu setting has shaped her lens on trauma and deepened her capacity to support clients through crisis. She is especially interested in supporting fellow queer/LGBTQIA+  and BIPOC community members, as well as young adults navigating the challenges and grief of living in uncertain times. Desiree is a poet and mother, who loves gardening, cooking, and movement. She has been dedicated to community healing, youth education, and mutual aid/organizing around issues of social, environmental, and racial justice for over a decade. Her work is rooted in a deep love for life and sustained by her relationship to the earth and all beings. 
Stephanie Teazis, MS
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Stephanie  completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University.  As a therapist, Stephanie works to create a safe and collaborative environment in which clients can build upon their self-compassion, self-awareness, and tools. Stephanie is passionate about various therapeutic modalities including person-centered therapy, emotionally-focused therapy, internal family systems, cognitive behavioral therapy, and attachment theory.  Stephanie has a background in working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.  While at the Community Counseling Center, she is excited to work with people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds.  Outside of work Stephanie loves spending time with family and friends, baking, traveling, skiing, and crafting.  Stephanie currently lives in Ashland with her basset hound, Daisy.
Shelby Wanser (they/them), MS
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Shelby completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University.  They are passionate about providing an accepting and empowering space for children, teens, and adults to engage in self-exploration and personal growth through individual counseling.  They utilize approaches based in Relational-Cultural Theory, Person-Centered Counseling, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to support clients to explore their experiences and values, deepen their self-compassion, and pursue their goals.  Shelby is passionate about working with people of all ages, genders, identities, and backgrounds, and especially those who are LGBTQIAPP2S+, neurodivergent, disabled, and/or members of racial or ethnic minorities. Outside of counseling, they enjoy training and spending time with animals of a wide variety of species, dancing, traveling, spending time with friends and family, and hosting game nights.  Shelby currently lives in Medford with their dog Finley and bearded dragon Buddy.  
Graduate Student Interns

Erin Kaminker, Graduate Student Intern 

​Erin is completing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University. She offers a compassionate, person-centered approach to counseling, providing each client with a warm, accepting, empowering space for self-exploration and healing. She is passionate about helping people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds move through the challenges of life with more ease, comfort, and grace. Erin has been an acupuncturist, nutritionist, and herbalist for over 15 years bringing an informed lens to counseling that is holistic and unique. Erin draws on her background and various counseling modalities including Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Attachment Theory, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches. Erin fosters a collaborative environment for those seeking support with relationship challenges, life transitions, anxiety, depression, empowerment, and holistic health and wellness. Erin enjoys hiking, exploring the beauty of Southern Oregon, playing violin, and spending time with her family. 

Jaclyn Steinmann, Graduate Student Intern

Jaclyn is completing a Masters degree in clinical psychology through Antioch University Los Angeles. She is passionate about utilizing techniques from Internal family systems and self compassion practices to aid people in fostering a deep sense of inner wholeness. Using existential, humanistic and transpersonal orientations she encourages people to connect with their inner wisdom and feel safe and well in their unique human experience. Jaclyn has done extensive research and focused much of her work in graduate school on obsessive compulsive disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder and is a mental health advocate for NOCD, an online community supporting those suffering from OCD. She has a background in holistic wellness practices and yogic philosophy. Outside of work she is a mother, a writer, a home chef and an avid yogi.
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Briana Lescher - Gruaduate Student Intern

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Briana is completing a master’s degree in clinical Mental Health Counseling at Bushnell University where she’s cultivating clinical skills and furthering her passion for social justice and community engagement. Briana enjoys working with children, adolescents, adults, and couples and leans into a relational approach to working with people, honoring their lived experience above all else. Briana believes in the healing power of building a safe and trusting relationship with clients, and values the human capacity to embark on self reflection to manifest change. 
Outside of the therapeutic setting, Briana practices yoga, trail runs, plays pickle-ball and enjoys the outdoors with her two small children and husband. 

Ryan Wright - Graduate Student Intern 

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Ryan is completing a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University. He believes that every person possesses the resilience, capability, and strength to meet life’s challenges, and that counseling is a unique opportunity to muster those inner resources. His goal is to meet each client wherever they are with unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness, and in doing so, reflect the innate goodness that exists within each of us. This reflective process is the heart of what is known as person-centered counseling, which he believes holds the potential to heal and transform. Additionally, Ryandraws on concepts and techniques from internal family systems, emotionally focused therapy, imago therapy, and family systems theory, to provide perspectives that may help clients better understand themselves and their relationships, and in so doing, pursue life with renewed zest. When Ryan is not counseling clients or in school, he can most likely be found hiking, rock climbing, watching sci-fi shows/movies, and spending quality time with his wife and cat.

Sofia Baldridge - Graduate Student Intern

​Sofia is completing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Oregon University. She offers a person-centered approach where she sees the client as the expert on their own life, while offering unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy. As a new counselor, Sofia is inspired by the principles of Existentialism and Internal Family Systems and hopes to work with individuals, children, families and couples. Sofia is passionate about holistic wellness and believes that mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health are all interconnected. She believes we all have the tools within us to live a meaningful, joyful, and peaceful life, and she is hoping to provide therapy to help individuals achieve a greater sense of wellbeing. When not conducting therapy or in classes, you can find Sofia drafting her first novel, jogging around Ashland, planning her next adventure, cooking at home, or curled up with a book.  
Formerly Associated with the Community Counseling Center of Ashland