Kelly Drake , LMSW

Kelly Drake is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with 25 years of experience in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Her clinical foundation blends family systems and psychodynamic ideas with strength-based concepts, and she integrates solution-focused and cognitive behavioral methods when they fit a client's needs. Early in her career she spent a decade conducting suicide assessments and providing trauma treatment for children ages 4 to 17, many of whom came from abusive homes across the Detroit area and received services through community mental health agencies and school systems.

Following that work, she pursued a role in the U.S. Army as an officer and social worker, spending another decade on active duty supporting soldiers and their families with suicide risk assessment and trauma treatment. During her military service she adapted a solution-focused stance favored by the services and applied cognitive behavioral techniques to address nightmares and sleep disturbances. She has also been trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy as an evidence-based approach for PTSD.

Kelly’s clinical manner is calm, collected, and perceptive, offering accurate empathy while practicing with respect and dignity. She moves at a client’s pace and is candid about what is necessary for change, viewing improvement as a product of the therapeutic relationship rather than simple advice from friends. Social work is a vocation for her, and she expresses gratitude for the opportunity to be invited into the vulnerable parts of people’s lives. LMSW denotes a Licensed Master Social Worker, a state credential that authorizes clinical social work practice.