Our Team

Founded in the spring of 2012, Therapy Austin is a counseling agency with many locations in central, north and south Austin, whose mission is to provide high-quality mental health services to adults and offer affordable fees and flexible after-work hours to ensure our community has broad access to counseling services. We accomplish this by engaging in a selective hiring process then investing heavily in the ongoing training and mentoring of our staff counselors.

Managing Partners

With over twenty years of combined clinical experience, Danielle Hayes and Ellen Lindsey oversee the staff and daily operations at Therapy Austin. Co-founders Ellen Lindsey and Danielle Hayes officed together for many years before conceiving of and launching Therapy Austin in 2012. With social work a common background, they have shared many cases, trained jointly, and even purchased two pieces of commercial real estate together. Over the course of their professional relationship, they discovered that their styles are complementary and their career goals compatible.

Once they had trained to be clinical supervisors, they set out to launch an agency that could serve the mental health concerns of people in need in our community. The Therapy Austin staff is hand-picked from the finest of Austin's counseling and social work graduates. As managing partners, Ellen and Danielle share in the day-to-day functioning of this agency and in developing their vision - providing a rich training ground to promising interns and affordable and accessible services to the people of Austin.

Danielle Hayes, LCSW

(she/her/hers)

Managing Partner

Danielle Hayes brings a wealth of experience and training to her service at Therapy Austin. With a background in fundraising, nonprofit management and human resources, she guides our Operations with a wise and thorough approach. Danielle’s expertise in systems theories and her intuitive sense of patterns is leveraged in creating our programming, expanding our infrastructure, and projecting our growth. Her clinical work is client-centered and interactive, reflecting a unique blend of practical skill-building, insight, creativity, and compassion. Having grown up internationally, she is culturally fluid and welcomes people from all walks of life. In addition to managing Therapy Austin, she maintains a small private practice treating both individuals and couples and runs a weekly mixed-gender psychotherapy group. Danielle specializes in treating anxiety, childhood trauma and eating disorders. She is trained in Psychodynamic Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Modern Analysis and EMDR and is certified in Conflict Resolution.

Ellen Lindsey, LCSW

Managing Partner

Ellen Lindsey has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and brings the lessons of past efforts to her work at Therapy Austin. She partners with the Director of Technology in a creative approach to developing data-driven applications for a person-centered agency. She utilizes her predilection for list-making and spreadsheets by heading up project management across the agency. Her love of writing often lands her tasks of content creation for our website, internal communications, and honing programs to be congruent with our mission and vision. Ellen’s interest in design keeps her engaged with Therapy Austin’s branding and digital presentation, as well as crafting our physical spaces. Since 2003, Ellen has run her own private practice serving adults who present with struggles in relationships, anxiety, grief, divorce and life transitions. She works with clients from a strengths-based perspective, building on qualities they have, instead of focusing on what is missing. Her training includes Psychodynamic Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Focussing, EMDR, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Directors

From clinical oversight to staff development, technology to operations, our Directors work closely with their individual departments and the Managing Partners to carry out the mission of our agency and provide leadership for this large agency.

Roxanne Watson, LPC

(she/her/hers)

Director of Human Resources

Roxanne joined Therapy Austin in 2015 as part of the counseling staff. She loved the agency so much, she agreed to join our Leadership Team and stay on full-time, both as counselor and administrator. As a Coordinator, her commitment, dedication, and strength of leadership shined through, which made her the ideal choice for Assistant Director, a new position created in 2018. By 2019, her responsibilities had grown so much that she was promoted to Director of Operations. Roxanne manages our Coordinators, oversees our recruitment process, and assists the managing partners in crafting and manifesting our continued development.

View Roxanne Watson's Profile

Gina Rodriguez, LPC, LMFT

Director of Staff Development

Gina has been with Therapy Austin since the end of 2015 and has been instrumental in the development and growth of this agency. She joined the Coordinator Team in 2017, then took on implementing our CEU-level Training Program in 2018. And, in 2019, she was promoted again to Training Manager as she took over guiding and supporting our crew of Mentors who provide one-on-one coaching to our first-year staff. She also serves on the Staff Development Team, providing additional direct coaching to counselors who are striving to learn and grow in this craft. To round out her expansive list of duties, Gina is relied upon to oversee the deployment and use of all the web-based tools necessary to our counselors’ daily functioning.

View Gina Rodriguez's Profile

Elena Stransky

Director of Technology

Elena came to us with a degree in Computer Science and experience creating apps for other local businesses, including Whole Foods, Favor, and Five & Four Design. She started working with Therapy Austin in 2014 providing development services for our brainchild, TAWorks, an internal web-based application that houses our counselor-client matching algorithm. TAWorks provides a platform to track requests for service, performance, payroll, and caseload management. In 2020, Elena joined Therapy Austin fulltime as our Technology Manager, overseeing not only the ongoing development of TAWorks but also taking over marketing, social media, keeping our website updated and acting as liaison internally and externally for all other technology platforms we rely on. Elena is part of our Executive Team, bringing data-driven participation to long-term forecasting and strategic planning.

DeLinda Spain, LCSW, CGP, CEDS

Clinical Director

DeLinda Spain is an expert clinician and an enthusiastic educator. A graduate of the University of Texas School of Social Work, she has been honing her clinical skills in Austin for more than 20 years.

In 2018, she accepted the position of Clinical Director at Therapy Austin where she is deeply committed to providing support, consultation and encouragement to all of our counselors. In her role, DeLinda offers clinical consultation to our counseling staff, both one-on-one and in groups, presents at multiple trainings throughout the year, and provides professional development mentoring to our Senior Counselors. With the gifts of experience, wisdom, approachability and compassion, she is a cherished director in our agency. Staff need never feel lost in a challenging case, because DeLinda is readily available, with a bright light to guide their way and a shoulder to lean on.

Managers

Therapy Austin’s Managers report to the Directors and oversee all the critical programs that comprise the heart and soul of Therapy Austin, including policy, training, recruitment, and client services.

Jill Hokanson, LCSW-S

(she/her/hers)

Clinical Manager

Jill joined Therapy Austin as a Staff Counselor in 2016 and was promoted to Leadership when it expanded in 2018. She began as Staff Writer, moved up to Communications Associate in 2019, and is now serving as our Policy and Procedure Coordinator. Jill knows how we get things done and she's available to staff when they have questions. In that capacity, she is acting as Mentor Lead to be a direct resource to the Mentors who give one-on-one guidance to all our counselors. Jill also leads our weekly Peer Consultation Group, where staff meet to support one another’s growth. Jill oversees publication of our weekly newsletter for staff, the Therapy Austin blog, Shift Happens, and the revisions and updates to the counselors’ profiles you see on this site.

View Jill Hokanson's Profile

Catherine Dilger, LPC

Training & Policy Manager

Catherine joined our team as a Staff Counselor in 2019 and proved her competence right out of the gate. It’s no small effort to learn all our systems and processes here at TA, so we have developed a detailed training program through the years that all of our new-hires go through before they begin seeing clients. Catherine is now the official leader in that program, hosting all four days of new hire training and doing her best to make sure that everyone has the knowledge and skills they need to get started in the room. Additionally she serves as out Privacy Officer, ensuring that everyone stays HIPAA-compliant and actually knows what that means.

View Catherine Dilger's Profile

Melanie Dyer, LPC

(she/her/hers)

Client Care Manager

Melanie joined our agency in 2018 as a Staff Counselor and was quickly promoted to Leadership in 2019. As our Client Care Manager, Melanie oversees client services through request administration and counselor changes. She is at the forefront of ensuring requests are taken care of thoughtfully and quickly and that counselors feel well supported during transitions.

View Melanie Dyer's Profile

Alethea Johnson

Office Manager

Alethea joined Therapy Austin in 2020 as our first ever Office Manager, having spent many years assisting other practitioners with running their businesses. She manages all things office-related, making sure our spaces are stocked with what we need, maintained in working order, and kept clean by a professional cleaning crew. She oversees our Room Scheduler and teletherapy “rooms,” making sure all our counselors have a time and place to meet their clients. She also oversees vendor relationships and makes sure our office systems are humming along. She also works with Recruitment and Onboarding, ensuring smooth entries for all our new-hires.

Maggie Behle, LCSW

(she/her/hers)

Mentor Manager

After a decade of teaching, Maggie joined Therapy Austin as a Staff Counselor in August of 2018 and rose as one of our inaugural Mentors in October of 2019, then Staff Coordinator in June, 2021, and now Mentor Manager in March, 2022. Gifted in both writing and instruction, Maggie uses her resourceful and strategic talents to improve our Mentor program and shape the evolving curriculum. She also leads a small team of Mentors, sharing her expertise in the art of teaching and guiding Staff Counselors to succeed at the agency.

View Maggie Behle's Profile

Melissa Quackenbush, LMSW

(she/her/hers)

Recruitment Manager

Melissa joined Therapy Austin as a Staff Counselor in 2020. An incredible counselor and asset to the team, Melissa became a Staff Development Counselor, Mentor, and member of our Bias & Inclusivity team in 2021. Her experience and enthusiasm led her to becoming our Recruitment Manager in the summer of 2022. At the helm of our recruitment team, Melissa is responsible for sourcing, attracting, and hiring job candidates.

View Melissa Quackenbush's Profile

Coordinators

Our Coordinators support the Managers and Directors across all departments at our agency. They are frontline resources to all of our Staff Counselors.

Ashlyn Simmons, LMSW

(she/her/hers)

Staff Coordinator: New Hire Training

Our New Hire Trainer has a great appreciation for all things Therapy Austin and a love of training! Ashlyn began at Therapy Austin as a Staff Counselor in August of 2019 and then took on the role of Staff Development Counselor in October of 2020 and Staff Coordinator in June, 2021. She brings a lot of creative ideas and enthusiasm to this role. Ashlyn also assists with requests for service, taking great care to match clients with counselors who can best meet their needs.

View Ashlyn Simmons's Profile

Ussama Taha, LMSW

(he/him/his)

Staff Coordinator: Recruitment

Tasked with filling our roster with excellent therapists, the Recruitment Team plays a critical role in our agency. Ussama is the first person who promising candidates speak with and is highly skilled in screening for those who meet our high standards. He joined our staff in August of 2019 and was promoted to Staff Development Counselor in October of 2020, then Staff Coordinator in June, 2021. When we formed the Bias and Inclusivity Team in the Summer of 2020, Ussama thoughtfully accepted the request to lead that group. Ussama led the Bias and Inclusivity Team until the summer of 2022. Additionally, he serves as Mentor helping the newer Staff Counselors reach their potential.

View Ussama Taha's Profile

Anne Johnson, LPC

Staff Coordinator: Clinical Training

Therapy Austin is invested and dedicated to ongoing clinical training for our entire staff. Anne, who joined our team early in 2020 and quickly demonstrated her clinical skill and potential, oversees the administration of our Clinical Training Program. With this promotion to Staff Coordinator in June, 2021, she also took on the additional role of Mentor, lending her clarity and strengths to counselors who are not as far along in their professional journey. Additionally, she assists with requests for service, thoughtfully assigning clients to our stellar counselors.

View Anne Johnson's Profile

Ashley Symons

Content Coordinator

Ashley comes to Therapy Austin with a Bachelor's in Sociology and Communications and has experience working on a wide range of projects for numerous non-profits, including the Miracle Foundation. As the Content Coordinator at Therapy Austin, Ashley manages our website, oversees our social media efforts, and supports many of our technical needs. Outside of work, Ashley likes to spend time with her two pugs, Eloise and Gus, and explore new restaurants.

Courtney Zai

HR Coordinator–Operations & Benefits

Courtney comes to Therapy Austin with a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies and HR experience in higher education. As the Operations & Benefits HR Coordinator, Courtney manages employee records, maintains internal documents & forms, analyzes trends related to employment, and handles internal job postings & applications.

La-Fonda Bolton

HR Coordinator–Payroll & Finance

La-Fonda recently moved to Austin from the Bay Area. She brings with her a Bachelor's degree in Business Admin Human Resources Management and 5 years of HR experience. As the Payroll & Finance HR Coordinator, La-Fonda reviews timesheets, submits payroll, approves invoices for payment, and supports many of our finance needs.

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