Clinical Team
Salina Barnett - LMHC-D
Training: University of Rochester (Master of Science - Mental Health Counseling), Nazareth University (Bachelor of Arts - History)
Salina (they/she) is a humanistic and trauma-informed counselor who takes a person-centered approach with clients who are struggling with feeling simultaneously both “too much” and “not enough” in their personal or professional lives. With an approach informed by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS), and relational therapies, she guides clients toward “unmasking” their authentic selves while reducing emotional and relational stress experienced by many neurodivergent people in our neurotypical world. Their areas of focus include neurodivergent (ADHD, autism, intellectual impairment, sensory processing disorder) and queer adolescents (16+) and adults, particularly late-diagnosed autistic people who were assigned female at birth and transgender individuals. She enjoys empowering clients to build self-compassion and acceptance, emotional resilience, and healthy relationships with others and self by helping clients find a balance between self-regulation and self-advocacy.
Salina also works with adolescents (16+) and adults who live with anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation associated with other mental or physical health conditions, complex trauma, mood dependent behaviors (such as self-harm), chronic suicidal ideation, gender and sexual identity concerns, and relationship difficulties. They are a HAES-aligned (Health At Every Size) clinician with lived fat, queer, and neurodivergent experience. Due to their scope of practice, please note that Salina does not treat eating disorders (except ARFID), substance abuse disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Clients with a history of these disorders that are currently in remission are encouraged to outreach for an initial consultation.
Before joining MindWell in 2022, Salina spent three years working with individuals and families in community mental health clinic and school-based settings where she provided services predominately to adolescents and adults with neurodivergence and complex trauma. Prior to this, they spent three years working with children and families in a residential treatment program for youth with co-occurring mood/conduct and developmental disorders. Salina completed intensive training in DBT through the Treatment Implementation Collaborative (with Dr. Shari Manning, in 2017) and has over seven years of experience implementing DBT to fidelity and with adaptions for intellectually and/or developmentally disabled populations.
Originally from Long Island, Salina spends most of their time outside of work planning road-trips with her cats (to visit their cat cousins!), reading non-fiction, and cheering on the Yankees.
Areas of Experience: Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Disruptive Disorders (ODD, Conduct, etc.), Personality Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, Gender Dysphoria