About Elizabeth Freund
Hello – my name is Elizabeth Freund and I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist. There are many types of challenges related to being in a family, and because my practice is intentionally small, I address some of them, not all. Given this, the following challenges in life are those I am happy to work with.
Anxiety and Depression are often inherited from the family, and can go back for multiple, maybe many generations. But these conditions can also be circumstantial. I help clients create a plan to help them decrease the impact of these conditions on their lives. A little anxiety helps us keep moving in life, meeting our responsibilities. A little depression can at times, help us make needed changes in our lives. And this is often the goal - to reduce these conditions to levels which help us function well in our lives. I have completed EMDR Basic Training, and often use it to help clients gain clarity in understanding their anxiety and depression.
Autism is a disability that closes doors for so many individuals, with the results often being much unfulfilled potential. And just as importantly, comfort in life is lost if they feel they have to mask their autism, and appear to do life looking neurotypical. I feel passionately about supporting autistic individuals and their families, and am an Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist.
Parenting children who introduce us to unexpected ways of being in the world can take us by surprise. We might feel pulled between our love for our child, and what people in our lives expect of us as parents. It puts us on a path where we need to be intentional about our parenting, and the family life we create. Because we know what's most important is raising our children to feel good about who they are, the lives they create for themselves, and to have compassion for others because they know what it feels like to be loved.
If you have experienced bereavement in your life, you know it can cause your life to feel like it has jumped track. The death of someone we love can be hard to make sense of. In theory, of course we know people die and life moves on, or is supposed to. But when it's personal, it can take a long time to put your life back together. I have volunteer and internship experience providing support for people who were dying, and the families they left behind. This experience, strange as it may sound, has been so life affirming. It puts the importance of what we make of our lives in sharp focus, while at the same time showing us the beauty and the gift of life. I see providing support for people beginning this journey as a privilege.
Sometimes we lose loved ones, not to death, but to an end of the relationship. And we grieve. In addition to the loss of the loved one and the relationship, this experience can cause us to grieve the future we hoped for. It can cause us to grieve the loss of who we were in the relationship. This kind of grief can be incredibly painful and personal. As with bereavement, helping people re-create their lives is something I'm honored to do.
I am a seasoned therapist, with much life experience in addition to clinical experience. I have moved past the parenting phase of my life, and am enjoying a long-term marriage. When I'm not in the office, I'm often delving into genealogy, enjoying live music, and gardening in the summer.
I believe we are moving from a time in which individuals have been expected to conform to their families and community, into a time in which we can see and appreciate the depth and richness that is possible when we encourage each other to be, grow and develop into the people we were meant to be.
Credentials
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Minnesota
- M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Stout
- B.S. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Associations
- Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family Therapists