Brooke Hartman, LCSW (IL, IN, WI)
founding director
(Pronouns: She/Her)
Hello! I’m Brooke Hartman, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, therapist, and Founder/Director of Hartman Counseling + Consulting. I have been working with kids, teens, adults and families for over 15 years in several therapeutic contexts, now rooted and providing critical incident stress management, individual and family therapy in Chicago and Wisconsin.
BACKGROUND
Prior to establishing Hartman Counseling + Consulting, I was a Staff Therapist and Clinical Supervisor on the Child and Adolescent Team at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, and previously maintained clinical/supervision practices in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I received my MSW, International Social Work, and Disaster Mental Health training at Tulane University in New Orleans, specializing in Trauma-Focused and Traumatic-Grief Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Working as part of the Project LAST (Loss and Survival Team), I provided crisis interventions, consultation, training and therapy to schools, counselors, and individuals, with a focus on building coping skills for kids exposed to violence and other traumatic stress (natural disaster, divorce, bullying, etc.).
THESE DAYS
I have a wide range of clinical experience serving populations beyond kids and teens, including college students and adults navigating depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, grief, loss, divorce adjustment, life changes and stress management. I have developed a specialized personal and professional niche in perinatal and maternal health, infertility and pregnancy loss. I am also trained in EMDR and find this technique useful and effective in treating trauma (both big T objective trauma, and little t distressing events that feel like traumas) and chronic pain.
I have further training in Infant Mental Health (kids ages 3-5) and use interactive play, narration, bibliotherapy and art to facilitate emotion expression and regulation in kids and teens.
I’m also on a disaster deployment team in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, responding to critical incidents and helping those affected work through acute traumatic stress on-site.
TREATMENT ORIENTATION
Using strengths and natural supports, we'll work toward the development of emotion regulation, stress reduction, assertive communication and coping skills. My primary theoretical orientations are EMDR, Cognitive Behavioral and Solution Focused Therapy, along with narrative, art, and bibliotherapy with kids.
SUPERVISION + CONSULTATOIN
I offer clinical supervision for pre-licensed clinicians toward state licensure, and provide consultative and contractual services to schools and businesses regularly, or as-needed following a crisis for intervention.
OTHER FUN FACTS
I am certified in International Social Work and have provided justice-oriented services in Rwanda, Cambodia, Nepal, and Cuba as a photojournalist/writer, along with macro and micro counseling services in Belize. I value all aspects of our identities, including culture, race, gender and sexuality— it matters to me that each individual feels uniquely welcome and valued at our practice and during the course of therapy.
I am a certified Traumatologist through The Green Cross, and certified in Disaster Mental Health through the Red Cross, an instructor for both organizations, and have volunteered in local and national disasters. To that end, I worked for several years as the social worker in a Level One Trauma Center/Emergency Room in Indianapolis before moving into an outpatient counseling role. I currently teach Disaster Trauma and Compassion Stress Management courses at Moody Theological Seminary in partnership with The Green Cross.
TEDX TALK
When I first wrote this TEDx talk in May 2020 and then presented it in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was worried it wouldn’t be relevant by the time it aired on the main TED Global site in at the end of July, because surely we would be through the pandemic by then. This is so laughable now I could just cry. Okay, I mean, I have cried. 
Most everyone I know is absolutely worn out and also gearing up for another big push toward sort-of-maybe-definitely-not-just-kidding-hybrid-virtual-who-the-H-knows school year where every impossible option seems doomed, and this sentiment in place of all the usual back-to-school excitement that ushers in Fall. Things we hoped would be normal by now just aren’t. It’s grief upon grief upon grief.
Anyway, if you want to feel less crazy or be granted actual permission to lose your mind, or if you want language for your losses, or a way out of comparative suffering; if you want to understand why you feel consistently on the edge (hello survival brain) and where we’re at/what’s ahead emotionally on this disaster map, and most importantly: if you want to find some tools for growth mid-pandemic, my TEDx talk is now up on the official TED Global site, and I’m feeling like it’s more relevant now than it was in June.
Please come hang with me virtually for like 14 minutes and pretend I’m drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday in YOUR kitchen making toucan-shaped pancakes, because evidently that’s what I do when the sky is falling .
Take-away: We are simultaneously allowed to name all these losses and also going to be okay.
CONTACT: brooke@hartmancc.com