Kristen Fritsinger, MSW, LICSW, obtained her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine in 2000. She spent numerous years working with adults who have serious and persistent mental illness, with a range of diagnoses. In 2004, she joined and became a partner at DBT Associates. She has been extensively trained in standard DBT since 2006 and provided years of individual DBT therapy to adolescents and adults, as well as co-facilitating DBT skills groups. Since 2015, she completed several 10-day Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) Intensive Workshops. She fell in love with the treatment and became a member of the original RO-DBT senior clinician team. She was the first RO clinician in the United States to become certified as a RO-DBT supervisor and was the first fully accredited US RO-DBT intensive trainer. She provides individual RO-DBT therapy to adolescents and adults, in addition to co-facilitating the RO-DBT skills training classes for adults and adolescents.
She finds that standard DBT and RO-DBT are incredibly effective treatments for persons struggling with undercontrol and overcontrol coping styles. After all her years of providing these specialized treatments, she continues to feel energized and passionate about her work. She has been told by her clients that she has a lot of energy and balances her warm, outgoing demeanor with a steady genuine approach that facilitates client’s growth and treatment goals.
She and her spouse bought DBT Associates in 2019. She has a passion for counseling, training, teaching and providing supervision to other professionals. Her other loves include: running with her golden retriever, camping, anything nature-related, and spending time with her family. Her golden retriever comes to the office about once/week. He loves the clients and therapists, greeting them with a big smile and lots of love.