Dawn Cleary, M.Ed, LPC, NCC, RYT, EMDR Therapist

Director, Student Counseling and Resource Center

Dawn began her journey into becoming a counselor after receiving life changing counseling services of her own. She graduated University of Missouri-St. Louis with a Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Education. Before coming to Lindenwood University, she worked as Residential Therapist specializing in treating children, families, and groups at Great Circle, and worked at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, as a mental health counselor and career counselor serving a diverse student population. She is fascinated in the brain/body connection to mental health/trauma, holistic health, and general well-being, and is a Certified Registered Yoga Teacher, with a focus on trauma sensitive instruction. She enjoys working with children, adolescents, and the college population. A student’s time in college can be such a time of change and transition, fraught not only with joy and new-found freedoms, but unique challenges such as homesickness, social and academic challenges. Her goal is to provide a safe and supportive environment to help students explore challenges, work through the situations that have brought them to counseling and identify coping skills and supports. She feels honored to have the opportunity to assist you as you walk through this journey of transitions and prepare for your future.

• Contact Info

Staff Counselor

Sara is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Missouri. She became a counselor later in life after initially studying political science in her undergraduate degree and planning to attend law school following graduation. Sara received her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Louisville, while working a local legal aid as an intake secretary for client’s seeking services.  Sara has worked as a Social Work case manager at the International Institute of Saint Louis, assisting refugees and other immigrants with ensuring they were able to navigate complex systems of the United States. After two years serving as a case manager, she moved into the therapy role providing Saint Louis city and county immigrants with free short-term counseling among other services. Sara is currently starting her second school year as a counselor at Lindenwood University. She is deeply interested in the connection between the mind and body, and ways to manage somatic symptoms related to mental health. She is trained in EMDR, a trauma processing therapy, and has a fascination with Acceptance and Commitment therapy as a tool to assist with anxiety. Sara loves to blend these modalities together to assist students in their unique journeys. Sara loves to work with students seeing the counselor for the first time because it can be a transformative experience that allows the student to explore who they are as a young adult. She is deeply fond of the humanist perspective as a tool to ground her work with students because they are all unique and interesting individuals. She cannot wait to work with you as a student.

• Contact Info

• Estella Armstrong

(636) 949-4541
scrc@lindenwood.edu