Dr. Thompson has been in the field of mental health for almost 30 years as a clinician, administrator and educator. She holds a master’s degree in Counseling from the University of Missouri and a doctorate degree from Saint Louis University in Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Thompson is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Missouri and Pennsylvania, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pennsylvania and Florida. She has served as president of the International Association of Addiction and Offender Counselors (IAAOC), which is a national division of the American Counseling Association (2016-17) and president of the Pennsylvania Counseling Association (2017- 18).
Dr. Thompson has worked in almost every segment of mental health including inpatient and outpatient psychiatric, residential treatment, managed care, private practice, forensic units, college counseling centers and school counseling settings as a consultant during her 30 years in mental health. Dr. Thompson was a gubernatorial appointee under three governors in Missouri to serve as Director of Senior and Disability Services, and as committee member on the Personal Independence Committee, the Perinatal Substance Abuse Committee, and the Long Term Care Task Force in Missouri. Dr. Thompson is also very active in advocacy, having authored two bills signed into law. One is the Elder Protection Act in Missouri in 2001, the second, the Title Protection Act for professional counselors in Pennsylvania in 2018. Dr. Thompson also worked on a team to guide Hong Kong and the Country of Turkey in their adoption of the ASCA model for school guidance programs.
Dr. Thompson has more than 13 years experience as director and chair of graduate programs in Counseling and Psychology, in Philadelphia, Tampa, FL, and Columbia, Missouri. She has also authored multiple curricula in the areas of Art Therapy, Correctional Counseling, and Marriage and Family Therapy. Most recently Dr. Thompson was clinical director of a 200 bed psychiatric day hospital for adults with acute and sub-acute psychiatric needs. She maintains a contract with the Department of Defense as a provider for deployment and critical incident events and a vibrant private practice in Venice, FL which focuses on working with couples and families. She enjoys supervising post-graduates for their licensure, seeing that as her opportunity to “pay it forward” for all of the amazing mentoring she received in her journey.
“One of my greatest pleasures in education is helping students find and nurture their passion and mentor an identity of life-long learning.” I am so excited to join NYU students on their journey to becoming professional counselors and working with such an amzing faculty and staff."