MinnesotaCottage GroveTherapy Clinic

Ade Odujole, APRN, CNP

Ade Odujole is a board-certified psychiatric mental health practitioner passionate about mental health. She had qualifications to assess, diagnose and treat various psychiatric disorders across the life span. Ade focuses on providing a holistic approach, person-centered, and comprehensive mental health services to adults. Ade is emphatic, compassionate, a good listener, willing to diagnose, monitor, and treat individuals irrespective of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Ade had vast experience working in inpatient mental health settings before joining Ellie. Ade loves to spend time with her family outside work and enjoys reading and traveling. ‍

Allison Affolter, MA, LAMFT, LADC

Allison is a Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor with a passion to serve individuals, couples and families. She uses her curiosity, transparency, authenticity and humor to build relationships with others and believes each person is the expert of their lives. Allison joins with clients to help them find ways to improve their relationship with themselves and with others. Allison practices therapy from a grief and loss lens- grief is universal and at some point, every person experiences loss. Whether this is the death of a loved one or loss of something special, each person's experience with grief is unique and deserves to be processed in a safe and compassionate space. The last few years have been TOUGH, filled with a lot of collective loss, and it's okay to ask for help and support. Allison doesn't use just one theory when working with clients, and incorporates elements of solution-focused, experiential, emotionally-focused, family systems, Bowenian, object-relations, IFS, CBT, ACT and attachment theory.

Arminda Brooks, MSW, LICSW

Arminda is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with experience providing individual, family, and group therapy services. She focuses on the strengths, resilience, and intuition of individuals to support the unique goals of each client and relationship. Committed to building strong therapeutic rapport to support effective collaborative work, she strives to empower individuals to share and explore their own stories and experiences. Safety, validation, authenticity, humor, and flexibility are qualities that she brings to the therapeutic space. Arminda has worked with clients with diagnoses of ASD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, and PTSD. She has also supported individuals and families in exploring gender identity and processing experiences of systemic injustice. She is open to applying her respectful and person-centered approach to a broad range of identities and experiences. Outside of work, Arminda likes to read, write, drink tea, and spend time with her loved ones. ‍

Ashley Richardson, MA, LMFT

Ashley is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is passionate about her work with individuals, couples, and families. Ashley approaches therapy in a nonjudgmental, client-centered way to ensure all of her clients feel comfortable and heard. Prior to joining Ellie, Ashley has worked in a variety of mental health settings including day treatment, outpatient, community-based, private practice, and school-based. She is thrilled to be able to join her passion, knowledge, and excitement to meet the needs of those in surrounding communities.

Ashley tailors her work to the individual needs of each person she sees. She believes that there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to providing the best care. Ashley enjoys being able to give her clients a voice and autonomy in how they wish to heal themselves.

Outside of work, Ashley enjoys spending time with her loving and hyper dog, Stormy, reading, writing, doing diamond art, and if all else fails you can usually find her at the gym working out, whether it's doing yoga or weightlifting, or some other adventurous class she chose for the day.

Caryn Bittinger, Caryn Bittinger, MA, R-DMT

Caryn experiences and sees everything as movement; from stillness and the smallest of movements to big sweeping movements, and everything in-between. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in Dance/movement Therapy & Counseling in 2009. After graduating, she dove into the intricacies of how to bring dance/movement into the lives children and families from all walks of life.   Caryn has decided her next step is to work on becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor. She approaches her work from a humanistic lens, while also bringing in Mindfulness and Dance/movement Therapy which assist in integrating the social, cognitive, emotional, and physical aspects of self.  As a DMT, there are many approaches — using authentic movements; using movement as a guide for awareness, growth, and healing; and using movement tools for developmental skills. Beyond her time at Ellie, you will find Caryn with her 5 year old exploring nature, creating, and investigating, as well as spending time with family, and dancing. ‍

Danielle Vetter Larson, MSW, LGSW

Elle is a Licensed Graduate Social Worker who approaches the therapeutic relationship with a compassionate, inviting, and inclusive nature. Elle is experienced in working with children, adolescents, and adults experiencing concerns related but not limited to life transitions, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma, psychotic disorders, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. Prior to joining Ellie, Elle comes from a background working with youth in psychiatric inpatient settings and school settings, as well as adults in mental health case management.

While Elle is versed in several treatment modalities, Elle recognizes the importance first and foremost of the client-therapist connection; thus, clients who work with Elle can expect her to focus on building a strong therapeutic relationship where they will feel accepted and heard. It is Elle's goal to ensure that her clients feel welcomed, empowered, and valued when they show up as they are, knowing that she will meet them where they're at as they pursue growth and healing.

In her free time, Elle will likely be with her Great Dane and her husband outside whenever possible, cleaning her home, or watching a suspense/crime show with her cats at her side.

Emily Groteboer-Distad, MS, LPCC, NCC

Emily understands that a safe and non-judgemental environment is critical for self exploration and healing. Emily has a niche for creating that space with clients through her ‘down to earth’ style. Emily believes in honest and direct communication and uses a strength-based approach to support her clients in therapy.

Emily is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with extensive experience working with clients who suffer from symptoms of PTSD, Anxiety/OCD and Depression. Emily is certified in Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) under the guidance of Dr. Tracey Lichner (appointed by Dr. Edna Foa). Emily is also certified in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) through the Strong Star Training Initiative. She is trained by Rogers Behavioral Health in Exposure and Ritual Prevention (ERP) for treatment of OCD. Emily spent time with the Department of Defense Air Force Special Operations Command, supporting active-duty members and their families, through the challenges of deployment and other life transitions.

Emily loves to laugh! She brings her dry and witty sense of humor to her therapy practice. As a true Sagittarius, Emily loves to try new things and she’s always up for an adventure! She spends most of her free time exploring, with her daughter and two golden retrievers.

Jenna Niemi, LAMFT

Jenna is a Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist who is passionate about using authenticity, humor and compassion to create a space that is safe for her clients. Jenna has experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families in a variety of settings, including school-based therapy, community-based therapy, residential, telehealth, and partial hospitalization. Jenna tailors treatment to the needs of the client, as she believes it is important to meet her clients where they are at, as they are the experts of their own lives.

Outside of work, Jenna loves to watch football, reading books, playing with her 3 cats and her dog, and spending time with her family and friends.

Jenny Harris, MA, LADC, LPCC

Jenny believes people can heal from mental health symptoms by finding their true self. Whether it's finding themselves again, or for the first time. She believes this process gets to be fun and easy. Jenny connects with clients through her authenticity, energy, enthusiasm for life. She believes working though significant life events and practicing skills will sustain long-term recovery. As a result, she has worked in the field for 10+ years. She’s worked in settings such as group homes, day treatment, and low to high intensity outpatient settings. She creates a safe, supportive environment to address difficulties like substance use, trauma, anxiety, depression, and life transitions.

Jenny earned her Master’s degree in Counseling and Psychological Services and a Graduate Certificate in Addiction Studies from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC). Jenny works from an energetic, compassionate, person centered, trauma-focused therapeutic approach. Jenny is trained in TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy) as modalities of processing trauma.

Jenny is often enjoying life by traveling, planning the next costume party, spending time with family and friends, hiking, kayaking, or trying something completely new.

Marlena Sauer, MA, LMFT

Marlena is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Minnesota Board Approved Supervisor for MFT and LPC/LPCC clinicians. Marlena has been trained in various areas, such as trauma and ADHD. Marlena believes in helping clients work on discovering their strengths and empowering them to overcome struggles they may be facing. Marlena likes to get to know clients and collaborate with them on their goals of therapy. Marlena's approach to therapy is to use an integrated mix of techniques, as she believes each client is unique and the therapy process should be tailored to fit that client.

Marlena has worked with children, adolescents, families and adult individuals in a variety of settings. When working with children, Marlena integrates play therapy in a directive or non-directive way, but more importantly, works with the parents or guardians to promote healthy change within the child's environment. Marlena's work with adolescents and adults emphasizes strengths and empowerment to adapt healthy coping skills while working towards optimal mental health.

When Marlena is not providing therapeutic services or learning new skills, she enjoys spending time with her husband, two sons and their dog. Marlena enjoys reading, cooking and baking, and providing healthy outlets for her creative thoughts.​

Monsurat (Lola) Oluwa-Okougbo, APRN, CNP, PMHNP-BC

Monsurat Oluwa-Okougbo is the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, her core belief and principle towards dispensing care to her patients over the years has always been to provide utmost care through a holistic approach.  Monsurat believes that considering and respecting the patients’ culture, thought and beliefs is a huge part of delivering utmost care. It is known that when people experience trauma or emotional distress, it is not uncommon for their lives to unravel and being a PMHNP-BC, with a gift of being a good listener, she considers it a blessing to be able to use her skills and knowledge to assist and provide a better path of healing to unique individuals and their families with mental health concerns. One of her virtues as a provider apart from a good listener is that she empathizes with her patients, respect and take into consideration patients’ values, beliefs, and opinions.  She believes that developing a partnership with the patient creates a smoother and mutually beneficial path towards achieving their ultimate goal.   When Monsurat is not working, she loves to be around family and friends, travel and meet people from different culture and background. ‍