Sitting with Gina Birkemeier, you encounter a woman who looks life straight in the face. Her story reads like a wrestling match, and as you see her expectant grin, you have to wonder if she likes it that way. Gina doesn’t run from life’s messiness; in fact, she’s quite comfortable getting into the muck (if you don’t believe me, check out her Certificate in Advanced Counseling for Trauma from the Allender Center!).
Gina’s own story is flecked with trauma and broken relationships, woundings that created in her an ache for connection and restoration. She honed her passion for relational and emotional healing through decades of providing pastoral counseling, lay counseling, and crisis management with struggling families. Gina fostered connections with single moms desperate for supportive care and responded to their need by helping to establish a local nonprofit organization.
Through the encouragement of her friend, Len Mattheson, PhD. of The Faithful Brain Institute, Gina pursued and received her MAC from Covenant Seminary. Shortly after earning her degree, Gina and her husband moved to Texas where she spent time in development and counseling with We Are Cherished, working to restore women who have been impacted by the sex industry.
Gina counsels adolescents, adults, and couples who are recovering from trauma, shame, and crisis. In addition to her significant experience in the field of counseling, Gina is a certified life coach and personal fitness trainer, incorporating a holistic approach to emotional wellness that spans nutrition, exercise, sleep. In mid to late January, she will offer a new group at CrossRoads called Renew, a brain restorative sleep class for women. Gina is currently working on two books while growing her practice at Crossroads.
Click here to visit Gina’s page.