Jason R. Franklin, LMFT, LPC (pending)
I served my country with honor in the United States Army for 5 years. Upon reaching a decision point that was best for me and my family, I separated after 5 years and began a 3 year career in the United States Army National Guard. Simultaneously, I took the first job that was offered to me and it just happened to be as a security officer in a major Community Hospital. Part of my duties as a security officer were to help people with mental health challenges and addictions from a Safety and Security standpoint, while my duties in the National Guard as a chaplain's assistant was to exemplify empathy, compassion, and provide for the soldiers religious needs. The ultimate result of the combination of these two fields was a newfound love for other people's mental health challenges and a desire to find new and challenging ways to inspire, encourage, and empower the people I was serving. To assist with this, I began conducting a lot of in-depth conversations with the licensed mental health professionals that I found around me, with a main focus of finding out how they acquired their license and what they do each day with that license.
To make a long story short, I went to school and acquired both my bachelor's degree in psychology as well as my master's degree in counseling with the emphasis of marriage, family, and Children Therapy. I also interned in some very exciting and engaging locations with wonderful supervisors who helped me to reach my ultimate goal: that I am now a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
Throughout my career of now 16+ years, I have worked with a plethora of diverse populations, client types, and cultures. My specialties so far have been in premarital and marriage counseling, trauma recovery, and addiction recovery.
I have endeavored to expand my knowledge and expertise by attaining certifications in Wellness Recovery Action Plan, Nurturing Parenting, Abusive- Traumatic and Emotionally Destructive Marriages (ATEM), and I am currently still striving for mastery in Symbolic Modeling. Through my work at Focus on the Family, I recently became a certified Focus Marital Therapist.
When I am not trying to help people, I enjoy spending time with my beautiful wife of nearly 19 years and my two boys.
You can usually find me reading my Bible, studying some form of therapy curricula or textbook, enjoying 18 holes on a disc golf course, going to coffee shops with my wife, or playing a video game with my boys.