Our Team of Counselors
Meet Our Staff
Rick Jass, MA, LPC
Partner/Clinical Director - Wausau Office
14 Years to Adult
Rick has over 30 years of experience in the areas of individual and family therapy, including couples therapy. He specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and has experience dealing with issues related to depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. He has been trained in EMDR since 1999.
In 2003, Rick became and remains a founding member and partner of CharisCounseling, LLC. Rick, who is the president and clinical director, and Lori Thompson, the business administrator, serve as equal partners. This partnership is positioned to take Charis Counseling into the future with expanding services for their clients and the community.
“As we learn to identify and challenge our ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) and replace them with the truth, we have the tools to transform ourselves and our relationships.”
Patrick Rohr, MA, LPC
Wausau Office
5 Years to Adult
Patrick's experience includes working on cases of depression, anxiety, anger management, marital issues, child behavioral issues, substance abuse, and trauma. His approach is to draw solutions based on the clients' individual experiences and strengths.
Patrick helps them set and achieve personal goals that serve to bring in lasting change, growth, and healing. He enjoys working with individuals, couples, and families. He has experience in working with DBT and CBT approaches and has worked in community mental health and school-based settings.
David Sliefert, MA, LPC
Wausau Office
​16 Years to Adult
David has a history working with a wide variety of cultures, populations and a broad spectrum of problems in a collaboratively manner. He specializes in areas of complex trauma, marriage/relational conflict, depression, anxiety, mood disorders and difficult family issues. He has many years of experience working with relationship issues, internet/porn addictions and international adoptions.
Trained and experienced in CBT, Trauma therapies, EMDR (Flash & Four Blinks) and Gottman's Couple's Therapy, as well as other therapies. He says, “one of the most satisfying moments for me is when the people are able to let go of their burdens and utilize the skills they’ve learned to thrive in their relationships and life.”
Julie Nelson, MS, LPC
Julie has been helping people and families deal with everyday major challenges in their lives. These include dealing with the pain of loss and grief, relationship challenges, and parenting concerns.
She's committed to assisting couples who are struggling with their marriages and helping them find the courage, strength, and approaches needed to rebuild their relationships.
Julie established a partnership with her clients. This enables her to help her clients seek solutions based on their own personal strengths. She helps them identify and use their own untapped resilience and find their own approach to healing that works best for them individually.
Check here for additional information about Julie.
Andy McGregor, MA, LPC
Wausau and Marshfield Offices
13 Years to Adult
Lois Swanson, MS, MDiv, LCSW
Marshfield Office
8 Years to Adult
Lois offers a balance of support and challenge, to assist clients in understanding themselves and their situation, and finding the motivation to make the changes they desire. She has worked in a variety of settings supporting individuals, couples, families and work teams to achieve their goals and improve their functioning. Lois utilizes Family Systems Theory, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Gottman's couples therapy and is trained in EMDR trauma therapy.
Special areas of interest are: *Anxiety *Depression *Couples *Trauma *Disability issues *Conflict resolution *Leadership *Workplace issues *Parenting and family issues
Lois began her career as a Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor, serving as a solo pastor, member of a staff, and later as head of staff. She has experience offering healing and hope to congregations that have trauma in their history.
Since receiving her Masters in Social Work, Lois worked for 10 years providing mental health counseling for individuals, couples and families, as well as consultation services for teams, through an employee assistance program. While new to Charis Counseling, Lois has a wealth of experience working with people of all ages and a multitude of life circumstances.
Tonia Backman MSW, LCSW
Wausau Office
Adults
Tonia is a compassionate, engaging, and supportive therapist, who respects the courage it takes to reach out and ask for help. She strives to build strong therapeutic relationships with each of her clients, and seeks to foster a deep level of trust, where it’s okay to share honestly. She believes the therapeutic relationship offers a unique opportunity to explore interpersonal and relational issues in the ‘here and now’, providing a safe space to do so. Tonia enjoys seeing clients grow in confidence, develop in skills and abilities, address fears, heal deep seeded shame and guilt, and break free from old patterns of thought and behavior.
Tonia Works with adults 18 and over who need help with Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Trauma and Abuse, Grief and Loss, Adjustment, Transitions, and Relationship Issues.
Tonia has over 19 years of experience in a Social Work capacity with over 10 of those years providing Psychotherapy in Outpatient Mental Health settings. She has experience utilizing various therapeutic approaches and strategies including: Psychodynamic psychotherapy, Interpersonal therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Trauma therapy including the use of Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR).
Krystal Holz, MA, LPC
Michele Kuhn, MA, LPC
Wausau Office
14 Years to Adult
Bethany Jark, MA, LPC
Bethany is focused on using client-centered and strengths-based approaches to counseling that focuses on an individual's strengths. She recognizes that within each person lies inherent value, which calls for a non-cookie cutter approach while arriving at a solution.
She has experience working with individuals struggling to cope with anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship issues. Her passion lies in helping teens and adults find a healthy way to thrive, cope with emotions, build boundaries, and develop a sense of self-worth.
She hopes to foster an environment that is peaceful and genuine, which allows her to establish meaningful, caring connections with each client. Through this, she hopes to help them feel secure and safe and gain the healing and grace they need.
Bethany has experience using various therapy approaches and is a certified trauma EMDR clinician. She is trained in CBT counseling, mindfulness, Solution-Focused Therapy. She can see individuals aged 12 and up.
Lisa Harrenstein, MA, LPC
Wausau Office
7 Years to Adult
Lisa considers it a great privilege to be a part of the process of change and healing. She has strength, depth and patience to face the hard that all too often makes itself present. She takes a supportive, collaborative approach, always seeing the best in each person. She loves to laugh and share joy in the positives of life.
Lisa has over 15 years of various trainings and experience in the field of mental health counseling. She is EMDR and TFCBT trained and uses approaches from these models often to decrease intensity and frequency of unwanted trauma reactions. She also uses polyvagal theory and approaches to teach awareness of the nervous system and help clients grow in their ability to accept and redirect emotional dysregulation. She is strongly grounded in CBT approaches that help clients gain awareness of how beliefs and thinking patterns can be restructured to gain freedom from depreciation and live with more confidence and hope. She uses motivational interviewing to empower clients to make changes that they want to make.

When Lisa sees younger children, she also expects to see an invested caretaker as part of the counseling process. With children and caretakers, she uses behavioral modification approaches to motivate behavioral change and provide structure and consistency, while remaining trauma and attachment theory informed. She works with children and parents to find what is underneath the behaviors, attempting to remove the stigma of “bad” or “problem” and instead focusing on meeting needs and teaching skills. She believes children benefit most when caretakers take joy in them, teach and believe in their abilities to gain steps toward independence and catch them when they metaphorically fall or miss the mark.
Kristen Johnson, MA, LPC-IT
Marshfield Office
10 Years to Adult
Kristen believes in taking a collaborative approach to helping client meet their goals in an environment where they can feel heard and understood.
While she sees a variety of clients, she has a special interest in helping couples rebuild their relationships, and helping engaged couples transition into married life. Other areas of interest include anxiety, depression, conflict resolution, grief and loss, older adults, parenting, and premarital counseling.
Her experiences include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Therapy, Christian Counseling, and Gottman’s Couple’s Therapy. She is a certified marriage mentor, Christian Life Coach, and a certified SYMBIS Facilitator.
Emily Weaver MS, LPC-IT
Marshfield Office
6 Years to Adult
Emily uses an integrated, holistic approach to therapy that helps clients identify the root cause of their challenges through a whole-person lens. She believes in establishing a strong collaborative and supportive relationship with her clients and empowers them to embrace the journey of self-discovery at every phase.
Emily has a particular interest in working with trauma and abuse, Anxiety/OCD/phobias, Depression, Grief/Loss, Chronic and Terminal Illnesses, Spiritual Issues, Autism, ADHD, and Career Counseling. She is currently seeing individuals ages 6 to adult.
Emily has experience utilizing various therapeutic techniques and strategies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention, Mindfulness, and Somatic therapies. Emily is also a Certified Autism Professional.
Kris Berryman, LCSW
Telehealth Only- No New Clients
5 Years to Adult
- those struggling with life transitions
- identity
- relationships
- depression
- anxiety
- trauma
- personality disorders
- body image/self-esteem issues
Georgia Wiese, MS, LPC
Telehealth Only
5 Years to Adult
Georgia graduated with an MS in Educational Psychology from UW Milwaukee after working for several years as a teacher and mom. Her experience includes working as a Youth Specialist at Lutheran Social Services in Marinette, Wisconsin. She has also worked as a Parenting Coordinator at the Family Support Center in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
She enjoys helping couples navigate through the knots of marriage, and individuals four and older, find their way through depression, anxiety, and trauma. She also helps people come up with strategies that will help them in their lives and situations.
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