Barbara Dolan Kiefer, LCPC

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Barbara Dolan Keifer is a licensed clinical professional counselor. She received an undergraduate degree at Elmhurt College, Elmhurst, IL, followed by a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University (NIU), After working for a decade in community hospital administration in Illinois and New Jersey, Barbara began to pursue her life-long interest in the study of children, adolescents and family systems at NIU, and earned a Master of Science in Applied Family and Child Studies. She subsequently generalized her counseling focus and earned a Master of Arts in Community Counseling from Argosy University, Schaumburg, IL.

Barbara has served as a family preservation therapist for Children's Home and Aid Society, and later as a youth worker for adolescent girls with conduct disorder and mental health issues for Maryville Youth Academy, having served as a Friend of Maryville for over six years. She also worked as a foster care case manager and licensing representative with biological and foster families of youth who had been taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services. During her internship in the community counseling, Barbara worked with adults with development delays and mental health issues for Clearbrook in Arlington Heights and Palatine, IL. She thereafter served as a grief counselor for Northern Illinois Hospice in Rockford, IL, and during that time facilitated an in-school grief counseling program for students of the Rockford School District 205. Barbara has served as a psychiatric behavioral assessor for the Rockford Memorial Hospital, and most recently as a child and adolescent therapist for the Pioneer Center for Human Services, McHenry.

Entering private practice after two decades of hands-on service to children and their families, Barbara specializes in counseling for all ages for complicated grief, anxiety and mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, anger management and adolescent issues. She as worked with numerous children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and with individuals with disorders on the autism spectrum. Barbara employs cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, short-term solution-focused therapy, ego-state therapy and healing the shadowed self. She has assisted individuals with Mindfulness training and difficulties related to extreme noise sensitivity.

Barbara is a member of the Illinois Counseling Association, and is a nationally certified counselor by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). She has authored and published three children's picture books focusing on accepting oneself and resilience for children. Her fourth book focuses on the family's response to grief.

Please feel free to submit any questions to bdk@glenwoodcenter.com.