DBT Team Member

Brenda Willis is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in both Missouri and New York State with over 20 years of clinical experience. She earned a BA from William Jewell College and completed her MSW at the University of Missouri - Kansas City in 2003.

Her professional career began at MOCSA (Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault), where her work focused on treating adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and children/adolescents healing from sexual abuse and assault. While at MOCSA, Brenda developed their curriculum for an adolescent trauma group and was co-creator and facilitator of MOCSA's successful DBT-based program still in operation there today.

In 2009, Brenda left Kansas City for New York City to broaden her professional experience as a Mental Health Provider for FEGS (Federation of Education and Guidance Services), a social service agency with community mental health centers throughout the five boroughs. With FEGS, Brenda was a part of a clinical team providing mental health treatment to underserved populations in the South Bronx, Coney Island and downtown Brooklyn.

After three years in New York, she returned to Kansas City and began work as the Mental Health Provider for Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care, a comprehensive medical clinic treating underserved populations in the community. There she worked mostly with clients in the LGBTQ+ community, including transgender clients with ultimate goals of gender reassignment surgeries. For these clients, Brenda provided the legally required treatment and documentation to support them in reaching their ultimate goals. In this role, she was present for all transgender and gender fluid clients as a source of guidance and support through every level of desired transition and worked as a source of unconditional support in the lives of all of her LGBTQ+ clients, not just those with a gender-related focus. As a queer-identifying member of the community herself, Brenda feels very proud and honored to be in a position to provide this level of support to her own community. Since then, Brenda has built a successful private practice. She has had training in a variety of treatment methods including TF-CBT, ACT, DBT, and EMDR and uses these approaches to help clients move beyond past trauma and painful events toward a more fulfilling life with hope for the future. Brenda’s style is solutions-focused and direct, mixed with genuine warmth and compassion.