Michelle Potter, LCPC: Michelle Potter is the Co-Owner of Phoenix Family Center, LLC. Michelle is responsible for clinical leadership of all programs including; training and supervising therapists, researching, designing and writing therapeutic groups and workshops and overseeing the development of new programs.
Michelle shares responsibility for daily business decisions in conjunction with her partner including, strategic planning, budgeting, purchasing, and staff management.
Michelle received her Master’s degree in counseling with a specialization in Art Therapy in 1994. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist (CSOTS). Michelle’s prior therapeutic employments include: Larkin Center, Mooseheart, and St. Charles Youth Center.
Dennis L. Graf, MS: Dennis is a co-owner of the Phoenix Family Center. As managing partner he is responsible for all the business aspects of the practice and helps to insure that the Phoenix Family Center operates at the highest possible professional level.
Dennis has had a 37 year career in Social Services. He possesses a BA from Judson University, and a MS in Social Service Administration from Spertus University. He joined the staff at Larkin Center in 1975 as a child care worker, and finished his tenure there as Executive Director. He also served as the the President of the Illinois Council on Training, Co-chair of Child and Adolescent LAN 47, was a founding member of the Kane County Mental Health Advisory Board,and is a past President of Kiwanis.
Katie Corlas, LCSW: Katie graduated with her Master in Social Work in 2008 from Aurora University.
She is licensed as a LCSW. Katie has worked for The Larkin Center and Ecker Center located in Elgin, IL. While working with those agencies She provided therapy for individuals, families and groups. She is also experienced in the areas of program development and implementation.
Katie is trained in DBT therapy and is an experienced debriefer.
Lauralynn was a special education teacher for Catholic Children’s Home -School Department for eleven years. In this role, she was responsible for the education, behavioral management and classroom milieu in a therapeutic day treatment setting. She was a member of the anti-bullying, school improvement and curriculum development committees.
Lauralynn wrote and implemented all classroom lesson plans, classroom behavioral management plans and individualized education plans. She designed individualized incentive programs for the youth in her classroom and specialized in successfully teaching the Federal Constitution test to children that normally underachieve.
Doug received his Bachelors degree in Management and possesses a MBA.
For the past 23 years, Doug has worked at Wolff Construction as a Real Estate Manager and Controller. This job entailed managing numerous commercial buildings throughout Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. In addition, he was responsible for all accounting functions, interacting with the President, and Board of Directors.
Doug was also responsible for interacting with company lawyers in various states concerning legal matters.
Shelly has also worked on a part time basis for the Ecker Center for Mental Health, Elgin, IL since 2006. She was part of the transition team assisting in providing continuity of services from the Larkin Center to the Ecker Center Adult program.
Shelly is advanced trained in Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT) through Behavioral Tech, Marsha Linehan’s Institute.
David De LaFuente: David is a bilingual and bicultural Spanish-speaking mental health counselor who received his B.S. in Social Work from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force. David provides individual, family and group therapy and has worked at the Chicago Northwest Mental Health Center, the Larkin Center and the Ecker Mental Health Center. He is on the board of directors for the Association for Individual Development (AID), the Club Guadalupano Scholarship Committee and other organizations in the Elgin Area.