Vanessa Martz , LPC

Vanessa Martz brings decades of life experience and professional training to her counseling practice, blending compassion with practical strategies to help clients navigate grief, relationship challenges, trauma, and major life changes. A Licensed Professional Counselor - LPC means she completed graduate-level training and holds a state counseling license to provide mental health services - and she also serves as a licensed pastor offering pastoral support alongside clinical care. Her background spans science, military service, and higher education, and those varied roles inform a grounded, thoughtful approach to therapy.

She speaks from personal experience as a veteran, the widowed spouse of a veteran, the mother of a disabled veteran, and the daughter of a World War II veteran who struggled with PTSD. As a parent by birth and adoption to five children and as someone who fostered 26 children over 33 years, she has extensive firsthand knowledge of parenting, adoption, foster care, and blended family dynamics. Those life events, together with her own grief work and encounters with domestic violence and loss, contribute to a deep empathy for clients facing similar issues.

Clinically she draws heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy combined with grief resolution practices, while remaining flexible and responsive to each person’s needs. Her aim is not to force change but to support clients in making choices that bring greater peace and the possibility of renewed joy. She is willing to explore spiritual beliefs as part of the therapeutic process and notes that clients who do not want to examine spirituality may find a different therapist to be a better fit. She is not currently accepting new clients.