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Visit this page often to read our latest updates and for helpful health and wellness content.
Visit this page often to read our latest updates and for helpful health and wellness content.
YOU are invited to LifeSpring's Annual Benefit on Saturday, Sept 25th from 9-10am. It will be a VIRTUAL event, and although we will miss being in person together for our breakfast like we have been in the past, we are thrilled about the opportunity to reach far more people with LifeSpring’s story, and to invite YOU to partner with us to serve MORE children and families in the greater Chattanooga area. UTC's Stacy Lightfoot is emceeing the event, the CGLA choir will perform, and we will have special guests Karen Ellis of the Edmiston Center and Micki Ann Harris of the Chattanooga House of Prayer. You will also get to hear an important ministry update from Co-Founder and Executive Director Dr. Michele Pickett.
To attend this free event, simply click on the zoom link below. We hope you can join us and please share with friends!
If you can not attend the event and want to help LifeSpring serve more families, text lifespring to 243725 or go to our website www.lifespringcommunityhealth.org.
Thank you!
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A Unique Opportunity:
From April of 2021 through April of 2022, your gift of up to $2,000 to LifeSpring Community Health will be matched (1:1) by the Robert L. and Kathrina H. Maclellan Foundation. This opportunity to double your giving impact is available to:
New LifeSpring donors, donors who have not given in the last 2 years, and donors who increase their gift to LifeSpring (the increase will be matched).
Thank you for helping us take advantage of this wonderful giving opportunity.
Name: Helen J. Pinkerton, MPH
Position: Board Member
Why I serve on LifeSpring Community Health Board of Directors?
My primary passion is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through the gifts God has endowed me with via my personal testimony, gifts of helps, teaching, counseling, and serving vulnerable communities who are at high risks for health disparities, inequities and being disenfranchised. I have over 30 years of experience working with the uninsured and underinsured at Erlanger Community Health Centers where I served in various management positions working with patients, staff, and the community at large. I retired in 2019 as the Grants, Health Education and Site Manager.
My personal and professional goal in life is to make a difference in the lives of people I encounter along my journey on earth; supporting, listening, encouraging, and letting my manner of living serve as a beacon of light that points to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Mental health services can prevent traumatic events, mitigate the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and improve mental health outcomes in youth. However, many families in our Chattanooga community cannot access these services as a result of cultural, linguistic, transportation, or financial barriers, creating significant inequities in mental health access and outcomes.
To reduce disparities in mental healthcare access and mental health outcomes for children and youth in Chattanooga, LifeSpring is implementing a multi-phase Mental Health Initiative in 2021-2022. The project will be overseen by Dr. Michele Pickett, a board-certified Pediatrician and guided by a committee of Mental Health Professionals who represent our patient population in race/ethnicity and culture.
Meet the LifeSpring Mental Health Steering Committee:
Anaely (Ani) Hernandez Johnson, M.A., LPC-MHSP
Ani Hernandez Johnson, M.A., is a bilingual Licensed Professional Counselor, licensed in the state of Tennessee. She received her M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy with a concentration in Sex Therapy from Richmont Graduate University in 2011. She has a private counseling practice out of downtown Chattanooga, serving kids and adults through individual and family counseling. Though she works with a wide variety of presenting concerns like: depression, anxiety, grief/loss, and stress, she is especially passionate about her areas of specialization: working with trauma (of all kinds), working with parent-child relationships through PCIT (Parent-Child Interaction Therapy), and working with women experiencing infertility, pregnancy loss, and postpartum adjustment. Having grown up as a first generation born American, she uses her experience as a minority and being bilingual to serve and advocate for the Latino community through culturally sensitive therapy options as well. Ani and her husband Jon along with their son reside in the greater Chattanooga area and are passionate about serving their community wherever they can as a family.
Pablo Mazariegos
After finishing his studies Pablo pursued a career in construction management, assuming that he would follow in the footsteps of his father, but quickly realized that social work within the Latino community is where he was meant to be. After working alongside underserved Latino children for a few years, Pablo pursued a degree in Marriage Family Therapy so he can provide counseling services to students and families who have been exposed to trauma.
Pablo works at the Family Justice Center as an Intervention Specialist facilitating support groups in the schools, and motivating children to reflect on their own story and engage in empathy. His philosophy is that “healing begins when our experience is felt and understood.” He is also a passionate storyteller producing short films that help people connect with one another; his films highlight the resiliency of Latin women and immigrant children in public education.
MyChelle Richardson-Pinkerton, M.A.
MyChelle is a Marriage and Family Therapist licensed in the state of Tennessee. She is a member of Journey Psychotherapy Center, a private practice in Chattanooga, TN. She enjoys working with couples, families, and individuals struggling with relationship difficulties, sexual issues, depression, and anxiety. She also works with those dealing with emotional challenges from pregnancy and pregnancy loss, grief and loss, and adjustment to life transitions.
In 2002, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In 2005, she received her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy with a concentration in Sex Therapy from Richmont Graduate University. She is trained in the Gottman Method Couples Therapy (Levels 1 &2). She is also trained in S.A.F.E. EMDR.
She has spent many years walking alongside individuals as they trudged through the muck and mire of life’s hardships. She has experience working in youth ministry, community outreach, and a pregnancy care center. She has been blessed with supportive, trustworthy people in her life who have seen her through many trials. Their example has taught her the ministry of “getting in the trenches” with people.
Mrs. Richardson-Pinkerton resides in Chattanooga, TN with her husband, Pierre, and their two precious boys.
Dr. Rachel Tolliver, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CCM
Dr. Tolliver joined the UT-Chattanooga Counseling Center in November 2020 as a licensed, board certified, psychiatric mental health prescriber. She comes to UTC after working as a registered nurse for 28 years and as a clinician in behavioral and developmental disability nursing since 2006. She is a May 2019 graduate of Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, TN earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree with a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner emphasis. Dr. Tolliver desires to see each person experience holistic mental health restoration through an integrative approach that combines the best evidence-based psychotherapy and psychopharmacology care strategies. She has experience successfully treating sleep disorders, trauma-related disorders, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders.
Tracy McKay, M.A.
Tracy is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Tennessee. She received her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton College in 2008. She currently has a private practice in Chattanooga where she sees adults in individual and couples counseling. Tracy has been an adjunct professor at Richmont Graduate University teaching “Trauma and Biology” and also supervises graduate students toward licensure. As a trauma informed counselor, she has specialized training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. She focuses her practice on seeing individuals who have experienced trauma in all forms from single episodic trauma to complex trauma, and is especially drawn toward holistic approaches. Prior to becoming a counselor, Tracy worked for Young Life and Big Brothers Big Sisters, feeling drawn toward vocations that facilitate growth and healing within the context of a safe relationship. Tracy and her husband reside in Chattanooga with their children.
We are thrilled to have such a knowledgeable and experienced steering committee to lead LifeSpring in developing and implementing our Mental Health Programs and Services for the benefit of our patients and community members.
