Erika Hess, MS, LMFT

Erika Hess is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AAMFT Approved Supervisor.  Erika obtained her undergraduate degree in Psychology with minors in Family Social Science and French Studies from the University of Minnesota and her Master’s in Counseling from San Diego State University. Before returning to Wisconsin and joining UWM in November 2022, she provided college counseling and clinical supervision at San Diego State and trauma therapy with torture survivors with asylum seeker, refugee and undocumented legal statuses.  She also worked for over a decade in community mental health with individuals, couples, and families.

Erika enjoys helping students shift their relationships with emotions, thoughts, and the problems they are seeking to address, and to move towards more fulfilling, preferred lives.  Her approach is grounded in Narrative Therapy which centers you as the expert of your life, honors your identities, and acknowledges the effects of broader social context on your health and wellbeing.  This might include exploring your relationships, family, culture, dominant social ideas, systems of power/privilege, or unhelpful inherited messages. Erika also draws from psychophysiological approaches (mindfulness, HRV Biofeedback, EMDR, neuroscience), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Solution Focused Therapy to support students in (re)connecting with and building up skills, and taking committed values-aligned actions. She also offers Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy.

Outside of work, Erika enjoys playing music and discovering new postpunk and darkwave bands, practicing mindfulness, and spending time with loved ones and her two shih-tzus.