Now Providing DBT treatment to adults and Teens!
About Us
Annie Florin, LCSW, she/her
Founder & Clinical Lead
(406) 201-8380
Annie Florin has been a licensed clinical social worker since 2016. She started working in children’s mental health as a special education teacher in a day treatment program in San Francisco in 2003. She completed her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Montana in 2016. She’s worked in schools, community mental health, outpatient psychiatry clinics, and acute psychiatric inpatient for adolescents.
Annie’s theoretical orientation is woven together from attachment theory, systems theory, feminism, and trauma. Her approach is client-centered and strengths-based. Her therapeutic modalities include psychodynamic therapy, DBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
DBT for adolescents is Annie’s passion because it integrates attachment, family systems, self-empowerment, and behavior change. And because teenagers show up to life with an authenticity that’s energizing to her.
Outside of work she is a deep thinker & feeler, a wife, and a mother. She likes to go to bed early, get her hands dirty in her gardens, trail run with her lab/pit mix, Pepper, and embarrass her children with too much affection and “bad” jokes (they’re actually pretty decent jokes).
DBT trainings:
● 2018, DBT Certificate Course - 2-day Intensive Training w/ John E. Lothes, MA, LPA, LCAS-A (via PESI). 12.5 CE hours.
● 2020, DBT Skills for Adolescents/Families with Elizabeth LoTempio, PsyD and Jared Michonski, PhD of Treatment Implementation Collaborative. 14 CE hours.
● 2020, Back into the Book: Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder by Marcia Linehan: A Book Study with Shari Manning, PhD. via Treatment Implementation Collaborative. 15 CE hours.
● 2021, DBT Foundational via Behavioral Tech. 33 CE hours.
● 2022, DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families via Behavioral Tech. 12 CE hours.
● 2022, DBT with Reactive or High Conflict Couples with Alan Fruzzetti, PhD. 9.5 CE hours.
● 2025, DBT PE with Melanie Harned, PhD, ABPP, 26 CE hours.
● 2025, Certification through DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™.
Karissma Rufe, LCSW, she/her
Clinical Therapist
(406) 201-8246
With over 25 years of experience in the mental health field, Karissma Rufe brings steadiness, depth, and compassion to her clinical work. Since beginning her career in 1998, Karissma has supported adolescents and adults across a range of settings, including group homes, school-based services, day treatment programs, crisis intervention, and inpatient care. These diverse experiences have strengthened her ability to provide grounded, thoughtful support during times of acute stress and emotional intensity.
Most recently, Karissma provided DBT-informed therapeutic services to adolescents and their families on the Adolescent Inpatient Unit at Providence. In this role, she worked closely with youth experiencing significant mental health challenges, collaborating with families and multidisciplinary teams to promote stabilization, skill development, and safe transitions to ongoing care.
Karissma earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Montana in 2023 and obtained her Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) credential in 2025. Her professional path combines decades of direct-care experience with advanced clinical training, allowing her to integrate practical insight with evidence-based treatment.
Karissma strives to create a collaborative, respectful, and supportive space where clients and families feel heard, understood, and empowered to grow. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys gardening, floating the river in the summer, and skiing in the winter—activities that help her stay grounded and connected to the rhythms of Missoula life.
Elizabeth Bassler, LCSW, she/her
Clinical Therapist
(406) 201-8391
Liz Bassler is a licensed clinical social worker with a passion for trauma-informed care and emotional resilience. She began her career in mental health in 2015 and became independently licensed in 2018. Liz’s early work focused on supporting women impacted by substance use disorders, followed by several years working with children in educational settings. Over time, her clinical interests evolved toward working primarily with adults, where she found her niche.
Liz is trained in a range of evidence-based modalities, including Ey Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Her clinical focus centers on reducing trauma-related symptoms and helping clients stabilize and build capacity for emotional regulation and healthy relationships. In 2024, Liz completed the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Foundational Training through the Behavioral Tech Institute, expanding her skill set to further support clients with complex emotional needs.
Known for her compassionate, direct, and engaging therapeutic style, Liz brings authenticity and clarity to her sessions. She often uses visual tools—including her trusty whiteboard—to support clients who are visual or kinesthetic learners.
Outside of her clinical work, Liz enjoys mountain biking, skiing, walking her senior Labrador, and reading. She’s also an enthusiastic fan of pizza and home-remodeling TV shows.
Selected Advanced Trainings:
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy Foundational Training, 2024 (Behavioral Tech Institute)
- EMDR, Levels I & II
- Trauma Resiliency Model, Levels I & II
- Motivational Interviewing
- Community Resiliency Model
- Internal Family Systems (informed)
- Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT)
Astrid Santana, PCLC
Clinical Therapist
(406) 201-8839
Astrid Santana graduated with her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Montana in May 2025 as an AHEC Scholar. She began her career as an intern at the YWCA of Missoula, working with adults and children navigating complex trauma histories including childhood abuse, addiction, domestic violence, and sexual trauma.
Astrid's journey to therapy has been shaped by decades of meaningful work. For nearly ten years, she served as a backcountry ranger at Glacier National Park, developing crisis management and de-escalation skills while learning to build rapport quickly with people in emergency situations. She also spent over a decade as a yoga teacher in Atlanta, leading classes, retreats, and teacher trainings regionally and internationally. Her teaching integrated humor, wisdom, philosophy, and storytelling to help students connect deeply with their healing process.
Her theoretical orientation is grounded in attachment theory and trauma-informed care. She integrates the science of trauma recovery with authentic human connection, using creative and somatic approaches to support clients' healing journey. She believes deeply in the transformative power of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and is currently completing DBT Foundational Training through the Behavioral Tech Institute and is supervised by Annie Florin, LCSW, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™.
When not working, you'll find Astrid exploring Montana's wilderness, practicing silversmithing and oil painting, or snuggling with her deaf cattle dog, Birdie, and any other four-legged creature she encounters.
Training and Certifications:
● DBT Foundational Training, PsychWire (current)
● Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Training with Daniel J. Moran, PESI (2025)
● MT BHWET Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (2024-2025)
● MT AHEC Area Health Education Centers Scholar (2024-2025)
● E-RYT 500 Yoga Teacher Certification, Pranakriya School of Yoga (2010)
● Emergency Medical Technician, National Registry of Emergency Technicians (2019-2023)
Jen Certa, LCSW
Clinical Therapist
(406) 201-8371
Jen Certa has been practicing as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker since 2022, having obtained her Masters in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Montana in 2016. Jen began her social work career 15 years ago, providing mental health services to families experiencing domestic violence, trauma, and housing insecurity. She has spent the last decade providing school-based therapeutic and behavioral support, advocating for more validating and inclusive school environments for students.
Through this work, Jen realized a deep passion for connecting with and supporting neurodivergent youth and their families. Her relational, compassionate, strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming approach to therapy is informed by extensive professional training on trauma, attachment, nervous system regulation, ADHD, and Autism, as well as grounded in her own lived experiences as a fellow “neuro-spicy” human being. She combines a warm, compassionate presence with creativity, irreverent humor, and an authentic, “radically human” approach to the therapeutic relationship.
Jen’s clinical approach is informed by several therapeutic modalities, including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), with a theoretical orientation firmly grounded attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, behaviorism, sensory integration, and neuroscience. Jen is currently completing DBT Foundational Training through the Behavioral Tech Institute and is supervised by Annie Florin, LCSW, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™.
Originally hailing from New York, Jen accidentally began a love affair with Montana in 2009. When not at work, Jen can be found admiring and collecting cool rocks, savoring a good cup of coffee, enthusing about the Enneagram, and wandering in the woods at golden hour with her three dogs.
Kelsey McFarland, LCSW
Group Facilitator, Clinical Therapist
Kelsey (she/her) graduated from The University of Nebraska in Omaha, with a Master of Social Work degree from the Grace Abbott School of Social Work. She became a licensed clinical social worker in 2021. Kelsey has completed Dialectical Behavior Therapy Foundational Training and DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families Training through the Behavioral Tech Institute. She started co-facilitating DBT groups in 2023.
Kelsey has worked with children and families since 2008 in a variety of settings, including Missoula's Children's Museum and Families First. She's worked globally and nationally at schools, children's shelters, day rehabilitation centers, hospitals and inpatient settings.
Kelsey has found that DBT is a wonderful modality to not only teach and practice with clients but to utilize the skills and live by the balance of acceptance and change in her own life.
As a clinician, she takes a warm, directive, and authentic approach to create a safe and supportive environment that invites clients to build insight and achieve balance.
In her free time she finds relaxation being in or around nature, reading, learning how to paint with watercolor, and spending time with her friends and family.