My Name is Kelly Austin, and I am the founder and owner of Brookside Family Therapy.  My first career was as a teacher, but I found I wanted to do more to help families, which is why I became a Marriage and Family Therapist. I figured if the family was doing better, the children would be able to concentrate more in school.

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so having my own counseling business was a no-brainer for me. Then, having others join me first as interns and residents soothed the teacher side of me.

In 2013, I graduated with my master’s in marriage and family therapy from Capella University. Throughout my career, I have worked with addictions, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and couples’ concerns. I work from a collaborative point of view because clients know their own stories better than I do.  We work together to form a plan to help you achieve your goals in a way that makes sense to you, where you are in your life.

Providing a safe space for anyone to bring up the issues concerning them is most important to me.  I am body positive and LGBTQ+ friendly. I believe we all live in a glass house, so we had better not throw rocks around!              

I frequently bring in one or more of my golden retrievers ( Murray Bowen, Finley, Henry Higgins) to greet clients or assist in therapy sessions.  Sometimes they just add comedic relief!                   

Clinical supervision is a passion of mine.  Finding a place to do my internship was difficult, so I pledged to myself that I would be there to help others. I provide supervision for practicum students and interns, as well as to those seeking licensure as LPCs or LMFTs. We are currently hybrid, doing both online and in-person sessions.  Some therapists are only online.  We use Zoom to do both group and individual supervision sessions.