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Samantha Langford
Billing Specialist
Samantha started medical billing in 2018 in the state of Virginia, with a focus on claim submission in a variety of specialties.
In 2019, she started medical billing in the state of California, with a focus in Dental and Behavioral Health claim submissions, insurance payments, and claim management.
As a result of 2020’s, pandemic, she relocated to Minnesota and did medical billing and claims management for optometry specialty.
She now comes to Hamm Clinic and is thrilled to assist all practitioners and clients in understanding their insurances and bills.
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Tera Meerkins , LP, PhD
Psychotherapist, Testing Psychologist
Tera (she/her/s) provides psychotherapy, conducts psychological assessments, and supervises trainees at Hamm Clinic. She received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Boston College and is a Licensed Psychologist in the state of Minnesota. Tera has worked with people from a variety of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, as well as queer and gender diverse individuals, experiencing a wide variety of diagnoses and concerns, such as mood disorders, anxiety, trauma histories, complex medical conditions, relationship problems, intimacy issues, and identity concerns.
Tera strives to create a trusting environment where clients can bring their full selves. She listens deeply to truly understand a client’s unique life circumstances, histories, current experiences, and goals. Tera integrates relational psychodynamic with DBT, ACT, and CBT approaches to best meet the client’s needs. This may involve focusing on developing strategies for managing an urgent situation, and/or exploring how past experiences may impact the present moment to support healing and foster new ways of relating. She enjoys working with people of all gender identities, racial identities, religions, sexual orientations, and ages.
Faiza Mohamed
Clinical Trainee
Faiza Mohamed (she/her) is a bilingual (Somali/English) LPCC-track intern at Hamm and is in her final year of graduate education at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. In previous experiences, Faiza has worked with adolescents at a juvenile detention center, with children at an autism center whose ages range from 2-10 years old, and with the Somali population as a case manager.
Faiza’s clinical interests include, but are not limited to, working with those who identify as underserved, multicultural counseling, addiction and chemical dependency, and learning about the lived experiences of others while working collaboratively to help clients reach their goals. Faiza notes that her main philosophy is taking a person-centered approach. She believes that if a collaborative approach is taken and an individual is given the chance to direct their own journey through counseling, they will achieve the best results. She believes in adapting styles depending on the client and meeting them where they are at. Faiza notes, “I am honest and I want the best for anyone who comes through my door.”
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Yvonne Nobles , PsyD, LP
Psychologist / Psicóloga
Yvonne Nobles, Staff Psychologist at Hamm Clinic, received her doctorate from the University of St. Thomas in 2000. In her 20 years at the clinic, she has worked with individuals, couples, families, and groups from various racial, social, and economic backgrounds with diverse mental health issues. She is also involved in training and supervising new trainees. Dr. Nobles believes that change occurs within a safe therapeutic relationship and focuses on creating that environment in her work. She values a collaborative approach, where the client and the therapist work together to discover answers to the challenges the client is facing. Dr. Nobles believes that her client’s family and cultural background are important elements to understanding the whole person and the impact of the past on the present issues. The daughter of immigrant parents and a native Spanish speaker, Dr. Nobles enjoys helping immigrants and their families discover ways of adapting to their new environment and mourning the losses of their former lives to make room for a new and healthy way of life.
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Paul O’Hara , M.Div., MA
Licensed Psychologist
Paul O’Hara is a contract therapist at Hamm Clinic. He focuses on the transformational aspect of the therapeutic relationship in understanding and working through the influence of the past on current issues. Paul is an Advanced Candidate in Psychoanalysis. He has experience in adolescent chemical dependency treatment, community mental health and hospital settings.
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Dora Palma , MSW, LGSW
Psychotherapist
Dora Palma (she/her/hers) is a bilingual (Spanish/English) Therapist at Hamm Clinic. Dora has a Bachelor of Nursing from Ricardo Palma University in Lima, Peru and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has more than 14 years of experience working as a Family Case Manager and Parenting Specialist for Latino families in the Aqui Para Ti / Here for You clinic within Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, MN. In this role, Dora specialized in providing culturally responsive parenting coaching and psychoeducation in Spanish and English. In addition, she has experience working with survivors of trauma, complex trauma, and family separation due to immigration. She has experience facilitating support groups for victims of abuse and caregivers of adolescents.
Dora has developed a culturally sensitive approach and looks to collaborate and support individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds struggling with shame and disconnection to heal emotional wounds and help individuals to develop healthier connections to self and others. She supports clients in their journey to find their inner strength.
Dora’s interests and specialties include healing from complex trauma, family separation, intergenerational trauma, and family dynamics. Empowering her clients to recognize their inner strength is what drives her vibrant passion for curative care and moving forward with hope and positivity.
Damaris T. Pèrez Ramirez , MA, LP
Psychologist / PSICÓLOGA
Damaris Pèrez Ramirez is a bilingual Clinical Psychologist at Hamm Clinic. She is originally from Cuba, and has been in practice for over 35 years. Damaris lived and practiced in Spain before coming to the United States. When she eventually moved to Minnesota, she chose to convert her degree and credentials which would allow her to continue her practice in mental health care settings. Damaris earned her Master’s degree in Psychological Counseling from Saint Mary’s University. She has extensive experience as a college counselor while working as an associate psychology professor in a medical school in Cuba. Her areas of expertise are stress, anxiety, depression, health psychology, psychosomatic dysfunctions, relationship conflicts, and trauma. She provides individual, couples and family therapy. Damaris is an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) certified Therapist. She also offers patients Mind-Body Techniques such as Progressive Relaxation, in English and in Spanish.
Damaris is not accepting new clients at this time.
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Damaris Pérez Ramírez es una psicóloga clínica bilingüe en Hamm Clinic. Damaris nació en Cuba y lleva más de 35 años ejerciendo. Damaris vivió y trabajó en España antes de mudarse a los Estados Unidos. Cuando se mudó a Minnesota, decidió convertir sus estudios y credenciales para poder continuar trabajando en el ámbito del cuidado de la salud mental. Damaris estudió una maestría en Asesoramiento Psicológico en Saint Mary’s University. Tiene una gran experiencia como consejera universitaria y trabajó como profesora de psicología asociada en la facultad de medicina en Cuba. Sus áreas de experiencia son el estrés, ansiedad, depresión, salud psicológica, disfunciones psicosomáticas, problemas en las relaciones y trauma. Proporciona terapia individual, de pareja y familiar. Damaris es una terapeuta certificada en EMDR (desensibilización y reprocesamiento por movimiento ocular). También ofrece a sus pacientes Técnicas de Cuerpo Mente en español e inglés, como por ejemplo la Relajación Progresiva.
Ellie Peterson
Macro Social Work Intern
Ellie Peterson (she/her) is a Macro Social Work Intern at the Hamm Clinic. Ellie graduated from Baylor University in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in social work and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in social work with a focus in multi-cultural macro practice at Augsburg University. Ellie has experience working with people of all ages and backgrounds, primarily in the areas of disability and mental health support. …
Read BioEllie Peterson (she/her) is a Macro Social Work Intern at the Hamm Clinic. Ellie graduated from Baylor University in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in social work and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in social work with a focus in multi-cultural macro practice at Augsburg University. Ellie has experience working with people of all ages and backgrounds, primarily in the areas of disability and mental health support.
Ellie is passionate about creating change at the systems level to positively impact both providers and clients. At the Hamm Clinic, Ellie will be involved in fundraising and program evaluation to help support a thriving environment and maintain Hamm’s high standard of care for clients. Ellie believes in the importance of the Hamm Clinic and our mission and will work alongside multidisciplinary teams to ensure that both providers and clients feel supported and cared for at the Hamm Clinic.
Maryssa Poderzay , MD
Clinical Trainee
Maryssa Poderzay, MD (she/her) is a third year psychiatry resident working as a clinical trainee in psychotherapy. She studied biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth and earned her MD from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Maryssa has received training in a variety of methods, including cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and motivational interviewing. She has experience working with people of all ages and from many different backgrounds.
Maryssa believes in prioritizing clients’ autonomy and working collaboratively together. She notes that her goal is to provide a safe, nonjudgmental space for emotional processing and the work that comes with it.
Kira Pontiff
Office Specialist
Kira Pontiff is an Office Specialist at Hamm Clinic and the first point of contact for clients. She graduated from Hamline University with a degree in Theater Arts and still acts in her free time. She has over a decade of administrative and front office experience.
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Rachel Richardson , MSW, LICSW
Psychotherapist
Rachel Richardson is a Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist, Individual and Group Therapist at Hamm Clinic. She completed her Undergraduate Education at Wesleyan University, 1987 and her Graduate Education at University of St. Thomas/St. Catherine University MSW Program, 1993.
Rachel is involved in a variety of aspects of Hamm Clinic’s work. Primarily she sees individual clients. She also facilitates an interpersonally-focused process-oriented therapy group once a week. In addition, Rachel is one of the social work supervisors, so she provides supervision to social work interns and/or social work fellows each year. In addition, she is involved in supporting some Hamm Clinic events, both internal and external, and serves on the Events and Outreach Committee.
Theoretically, Rachel sees herself grounded in contemporary psychodynamic or relational therapy, meaning that she sees our early relationships, patterns of interaction and experiences as critical pieces of information for understanding our present-day behavior. Rachel integrates theories and therapies to serve the client best. These modalities include cognitive behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, systems and feminist therapy.
Rachel wants to be open and available to the needs of each client, while trying to hear their needs, both implicit and explicit, and working to understand their story while having them feel her presence, interest, concern, and compassion. Rachel works to develop understanding of their history so that she can serve as a reference point for them as they try to understand their contemporary situation, its historical antecedents and the pain it is causing or creating. When it is working best, Rachel sees therapy as advancing both insight for the client and mobilizing change in their lives. Whenever either insight or behavioral change is stuck, Rachel collaborates with the client and seeks consultation to understand how the therapy needs to change.
Rachel has strong interest in mindfulness and DBT. She has done workshops in both topics over the years and uses both in her therapy work regularly. Rachel has been at Hamm since she interned here 1992-1993; she was then hired in May 1993. Rachel has also worked part time at Augsburg in their Wellness Center.
Kari Roepke
Director of Operations
Kari Roepke is Hamm Clinic’s Director of Operations. She has a background in Medical Office Administration and studied at Globe College of Business and North Dakota State University. At Hamm Clinic, Kari does a great deal of work behind the scenes, making sure the clinic operations run as smoothly as possible. She oversees the electronic health record, and manages the front office, billing department, human resources, as well as IT contractors. Kari has years of experience serving in a variety of roles – from acting as a regional manager of health information, to billing, to providing medical office management.
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John Scheuer , MD
Clinical Trainee
John Scheuer, MD (he/him) is a third year psychiatry resident working as a clinical trainee in psychotherapy. He completed his medical school training at the University of MN Medical School and is currently training in the HCMC-Regions psychiatry residency program. He has had a variety of clinical experiences, including both inpatient and outpatient settings.
John’s interests are rooted in interpersonal relationships and how these relationships, both past and present, have shaped and informed a person’s worldview. In addition, he values taking the time to understand how symptoms of mood, anxiety, or psychotic disorders impact people’s lives. It is his philosophy that through reflecting on how we view ourselves, and also on improving our understanding of how others view us, that we can start resolving the obstacles that interfere with our overarching goals.
John’s approach begins with collaborating with every client to develop a therapy unique to their life and needs. When describing his therapeutic work, John note “with all aspects of my own life, I will always strive to be kind, curious, and honest.”
Susan Sethna , MSW, LICSW
Associate Clinical Director
Susan is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and Associate Clinical Director at Hamm Clinic. She is Asian Indian and Caucasian and identifies as multicultural. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Carleton College and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota. At Hamm Clinic, Susan provides individual and group therapy to clients and provides clinical supervision to clinical staff and clinical Social Work and Psychiatry trainees. She is involved in the development and maintenance of clinical policies and procedures at Hamm. Susan teaches in the clinic’s seminar series and other settings, focusing on the application of theory to practice, particularly the use of self.
Susan has a contemporary relational, psychodynamic, and trauma-informed, approach to her clinical work. She believes understanding our early experiences help us understand our patterns and that healing occurs in the context of an authentic relationship with an empathic and attuned therapist. She strives to bring an anti-oppressive and ecological (person in environment) stance and incorporates mindfulness and other skills into her work with clients.
Susan has served in a variety of roles at the clinic including Multicultural Liaison, Training Coordinator, and Acting Clinical Director. In her role as Multicultural Liaison Susan coordinated a group of clinicians of color from several agencies who provided conferences and workshops focusing on providing mental health services to people of color, including a conference by invitation at the Mayo Clinic. Additionally, Susan worked at Andrew residence as a Mental Health Worker and Living Skills Instructor, working with people experiencing serious and persistent mental illness.
Kiran Sharma , MD
Clinical Trainee
Kiran Sharma, MD (she/her) is a third-year psychiatry resident working as a clinical trainee in psychotherapy. She is completing her training at the Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Residency Program in the Twin Cities. She received her bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. The past two years she has trained at various hospitals in the Twin Cities in Inpatient and Emergency Psychiatry serving primarily adults experiencing mental health crises. Kiran is passionate about working with people from diverse backgrounds. Her clinical interests include working with first, 1.5, and second-generation immigrants; young adults; individuals who have experienced childhood trauma; cultural psychiatry; and child and adolescent psychiatry. She believes robust therapy training is crucial to provide well-rounded, compassionate, and healing psychiatric care for patients. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her pit bull rescue dog, crocheting, tending to her houseplants, reading, learning new things, and hanging out with family and friends.
Josiane Silva
Clinical Trainee
Josiane (Josie) Silva (she/her) is a Counseling Psychology Intern at Hamm Clinic and a graduate student in the master’s Counseling and Psychological Services program at Saint Mary University of Minnesota. Josie was born in Brazil, where she pursued her bachelor’s in speech-language pathology and researched and worked in the clinical field as a speech therapist with an integrative and multidisciplinary approach addressing equity, inclusion, social justice, and systemic barriers affecting marginalized communities in public health settings.
Now a psychotherapist in training, Josie intends to meet clients where they are in life and provide them with a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and warm environment to explore their life journey and experience as a human. She believes each person experiences life differently in this world due to the singularities of events in their own story. She is interested in understanding how the human body-mind makes sense of past and present lived experiences.
Josie looks forward to working together with clients, helping them navigate their life’s narrative and identify the feelings, emotions, behaviors, family histories, and cultural and systemic barriers, among many other life obstacles that interfere with one’s feeling alive, connected to themselves, to their identity and life purpose.
Josie strives to meet clients with humility, to be collaborative, and to respect clients’ views of healing and growth. She notes that she values the client-therapist relationship, and believes that the analysis of communication, attachment style, and patterns developed in this dyad is fundamental work in the therapeutic setting.
Luis Solis-Reyes , MSW, LGSW
Psychotherapist
Luis Solis-Reyes (he/him/his) is a person-centered, empathetic, and enthusiastic therapist. He is bilingual (Spanish/English) and able to provide full and complete therapy services in both languages. As a first-generation immigrant, he cares deeply and is tuned in with individual, familial, societal, and cultural barriers and systems of oppression that can impact emotional wellbeing. He is passionate about working with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Luis received his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Saint Thomas and his Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He takes an eclectic approach to psychotherapy, which is informed by person-centered, culturally responsive, anti-oppressive and trauma informed care, in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy. In therapy, he provides attuned and empathetic listening, helps explore feelings, creates a welcoming environment that will allow for self-discovery and self-growth, empowers individuals to challenge places where thinking gets stuck, helps build self-empathy and self-compassion skills, sets goals collaboratively, and uses a lot of humor and joy along the way.
Luis enjoys a number of activities in his free time, which include running, biking, playing boardgames, attending sporting events, and spending time with family and friends.
In Luis’s words: “Reaching out to connect with therapy is one of the bravest and most courageous decisions that you can make towards your self-healing and self-care. The therapy space that I create is warm, inviting, safe, and judgement-free. In therapy, I walk alongside you in sharing your story and empower you to share your experiences, examine the roles and challenges that you have had in your life, and freely and openly share about how you are doing emotionally. Along the way, we will learn new skills, take a look at narratives that others have placed on you or that you have struggled with within yourself, and give power to an authentic, whole and confident inner dialogue that will help you navigate your past, your present, and your future.”
Luis is not accepting new clients at this time.
Matthew Sweeney , MSW, LGSW
Psychotherapist
Matt (he/him) is a psychotherapist at Hamm Clinic. He received his MSW from the University of Minnesota and completed a clinical internship at Hamm Clinic. Prior to coming to Hamm, he worked for five years at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Inpatient Mental Health, serving children and adults experiencing mental health crises, and he also has experience working with children who have experienced trauma and their parents. Matt’s approach to therapy is person-centered, psychodynamic, and relational. He believes that people can and do recover from mental illness and trauma. He strives to create a compassionate, affirming, and non-judgmental space for clients to share and explore what is most important to them. Matt is committed to providing therapy from an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and LGBTQIA+ affirming lens. His special interests include trauma, depression, anxiety, grief and loss, mind-body/mindfulness, and LGBTQIA+ mental health.
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Tsai Thao
Development Associate
Dorothee Tshiela , MA, LPCC
Psychotherapist
Dorothee is a direct communicator in her approach to therapy while using humor, empathy, collaboration and compassion with clients. She strives to create a culturally responsive, person-centered, and trauma informed therapeutic space. She has training in Narrative Therapy, Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, and psychodynamic interventions. Dorothee works to create a safe space for clients with various expressions of gender and sexuality. She is also interested in working with those who have experienced traumatic events such as child abuse, domestic violence, and those managing family stressors, life hecticness/changes, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Dorothee works with client who are interested in working with clients to explore how race impacts our experiences and supporting first and second generation immigrants.
