Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT

Alex is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over a decade of clinical experience. Their main practice is as a systemic therapist, specializing in addressing issues related to gender, sex and sexuality, and disability from a trauma-informed perspective. Systemic psychotherapy is based on Family Therapy approaches that were developed over the past 40 years, mostly from a Western perspective. Alex is trained in and practices Narrative Therapy, a form of therapy that focuses on the stories we tell ourselves and each other, as well as larger systemic stories (e.g., language, gender, culture), and the impact those stories have on us. Underlining this approach is a belief that clients are the experts in their own lives, and that the role of the therapist is to use tools and questions that facilitate the emergence and consolidation of the clients’ wisdom and preferred stories. In a systemic approach, even when Alex works with an individual in session, they bring an awareness of and curiosity about all the systems the client is part of (e.g., families, language, race/ethnicity, gender, faith/spiritual communities, and more). Alex is an AASECT certified sex therapist and is also trained in Somatic ExperiencingⓇ. Alex is also training in Dance and Movement Therapy, an approach mostly developed in the US and informed by modern dance, Authentic Movement, and developmental psychology.  Alex likes to integrate mindfulness, breathing, embodiment and movement in their work as a healing practitioner. Nevertheless, they are always guided by their clients and their needs. A psychotherapy session with Alex can involve just sitting and talking as well as, if a client is willing and interested, movement, breathing exercises, drawing, writing and other forms of creative expressions. Therapy sessions with Alex are your time to focus on your needs and healing. Any ideas Alex offers is just an invitation. Therapy is your journey. Alex feels privileged to accompany their clients on their own healing journeys, if they think they might be a good guide for them, and they are always open to feedback.

Kaj Benson, LAMFT

I am a licensed associate marriage and family therapist. As a marriage and family therapist, my lens as a therapist is always informed by all the systems that impact our lives and our relationships with ourselves. My priorities in our work together are believing that you are doing your best with the tools you have, supporting you in finding more nourishing ways to relate to yourself and your life, and co-creating a narrative about your life that brings you hope and gives you agency. I specialize in working with queer and trans people, people with chronic pain and illnesses, and neurodivergent people. I have been providing community care for queer and trans people since 2010. I enjoy working with developmental and complex trauma, and I am in my advanced year of training in Somatic Experiencing. Other focus areas that I prioritize include sex therapy, nonnormative relational orientations and structures, disability justice, body image, disordered eating, and marginalized religious and spiritual communities. I bring an integrative, radical, and queered perspective to therapy. I believe everyone deserves to have agency in their own life and to build a life they don't need to escape from. 

Mark Reese, MA, LMFT
EMDR Trained

Prior to the start of Edges Wellness Center, Mark worked at Franklin Family services for the past 6+ years.  Mark offers an affirming practice where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer and heterosexual clients can explore issues of self esteem, authenticity and communication.  He also works with people seeking to enhance their relationships however they define them; open, monogamous, or polyamorous. He welcomes clients with alternative spiritual beliefs and practices. 
 
Mark is a graduate of the Alfred Adler Graduate School where he obtained his Master of Arts in Adlerian Counseling & Psychotherapy. Mark works from an Adlerian and integrative trauma informed perspective exploring how a client moves along their life path giving meaning to themselves and to the world.  Life goals and the affective, cognitive, and behavioral strategies that people employ to reach those goals will be explored, especially from the context of the clients approach to or avoidance of five life tasks: self identity, intimate relationships, participation in community, vocation and a personal spiritual connection.  Mark may utilize EMDR, a physiologically based therapy, that can help a person see disturbing material, such as a traumatic memory in a new and less distressing way.
 
Mark has also spent the past ten years at the University of Minnesota working with the Families and Long Term Care Research Projects, predominately working with adult child caregivers of parents with memory loss and dementia as they face issues of depression, anxiety, changing roles, end of life issues and family/relational conflict that often accompanies caregiving and various medical diagnoses.

lora strey, practicum student 2018-19

i believe that all people are resilient. i believe that all people know themselves better than anyone else could ever know them. i believe that the stories that we tell about ourselves and our worlds create the worlds that we live in. sometimes people get stuck in a certain story or belief system that leaves them feeling powerless and helpless. a lot of the time, these stories and belief systems come from outside of us: internalized oppression and other people’s ideas about what is the right or best way to live can be very painful to hold if we do not fit neatly into a norm. 
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my goal in therapy is to listen to client stories and help them unstick themselves using the tools that my education/work/life experience/etc has taught me. when we feel less stuck, then we have more freedom to redefine our lives and our relationships to others. different people need different things from therapy: i will always listen to feedback and workshop therapy sessions with you so that we can co-create the type of therapeutic experience that will be the most helpful for you. i lean toward narrative family therapy, art therapy, and somatic therapies that focus on body-awareness and movement. i work with individuals, couples, and families.

in the past i have worked as a wilderness therapy field guide and a mindfulness guide at a minneapolis middle school. i am currently in graduate school at st. mary’s university of minnesota, and will receive a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy in the fall of 2019. i am very excited to do my practicum at Edges Wellness Center under the supervision of Alex Iantaffi