For more than thirty years, April has focused on helping families overcome challenges in their lives. She is passionate about helping others find healing, hope and purpose, and specializes in trauma recovery, leadership stress, marriage restoration and suicide prevention.
While April was earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Child Development from Purdue University she studied the impact of trauma on the brain and relational development. In 1997, she earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude, and began working as a clinical in-patient therapist in a Detroit psychiatric hospital helping those who had histories of complex trauma and abuse. After moving to Indianapolis, April continued working as therapist and later became the manager at a residential treatment facility serving youth and families. During that time, she provided oversight to direct care staff, case managers and therapists.
In 2001, April became the executive director of a domestic violence shelter, where she developed trauma informed programming for families with histories of trauma, and in 2014 she and her business partner began planning for Care to Change. April has guided a variety of organizations across the U.S. through leadership transitions and board development and often helps leaders develop workplace culture that supports employee mental and relational health. April has a passion to create space for those in church leadership, first responders/law enforcement and for couples.
April is an approved Focus on the Family Counselor, serving on their Michigan Hope Restored marriage intensive team and marriage retreat team. April is also a Guide for Onsite who offers world-renowned emotional wellness retreats, therapeutic intensives, residential trauma care, and digital resources.
As licensed as a clinical social worker, April is also a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) practitioner and certified educator and a Prepare-Enrich & SYMBIS pre-marriage and marriage facilitator. She is trained in Experiential Therapy, Crisis Intervention Teams and NOVA crisis intervention, Theraplay, and the Suicide PAIR program, is certified in EMDR and as a previous QPR Master Trainer, stays current as a QPR Trainer.
Along with many others from her team, April is available to train groups on a variety of topics including compassion fatigue, communication/conflict resolution, suicide prevention, trauma informed care, TBRI/parenting, and marriage preparation/enrichment. Other topics can be found on our workshops page.
April and her husband, Randy (also a certified Prepare/Enrich Marriage Facilitator, and marriage retreat facilitator), have been married for over twenty five years and they have two teenagers. Learn more about why April started Care to Change in this interview on Care to Change’s podcast.
If you need individual or marriage intensive work, email April. Because of her leadership role and speaking schedule, April has limited availability in accepting new families. Thankfully, Care to Change has a wide range of available counselors and therapists who are trained and experienced in various issues, ages, and stages.