Dr. Ashley Freeman holds a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and M.A. in Psychology from Iowa State University, and a B.A. in Psychology and in Spanish from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Her clinical experiences are diverse, as she continually seeks the new and the challenging. Dr. Freeman is experienced in individual, couples, family and group therapy for children, adolescents, and adults of all ages, and is also experienced in a diverse array of psychological testing across all ages. She has worked in a variety of clinical settings including college counseling centers, group therapy clinics, university departmental clinics, private practice, and a home for veterans.

Dr. Freeman has conducted therapy with clients experiencing all forms of anxiety (general, specific, OCD, PTSD), stress, depression, bi-polar, adjustment issues, relationship problems, social skills difficulties, childhood or adult trauma and/or abuse, bereavement, self-esteem issues, family of origin difficulties, identity development, career issues, eating problems, and many other life difficulties. She has done a lot of work with Adult Children of Alcoholics and survivors of child or adult abuse, both sexual and physical. Dr. Freeman also has experience in career counseling, working with students and professionals helping them explore their career interests, skills, and abilities as well as work values.

Dr. Freeman’s clinical style is integrative. She draws therapeutic techniques from psychodynamic, humanistic, and interpersonal approaches, matching her interventions to each client’s unique needs. First and foremost, Dr. Freeman creates a safe, trusting, and nonjudgmental atmosphere in order to foster open and honest communication. As such, she draws on humanistic therapy focusing on empathy, genuineness, and a strong therapeutic relationship. She relies on psychodynamic techniques to encourage clients to explore their early childhood experiences in order to gain insight into how the past may impact the ways they currently relate to others and interact with the world. The interpersonal process focus in her work is seen in her emphasis on immediacy and here-and-now processing within a strong therapeutic relationship.

In addition to therapy, Dr. Freeman has extensive experience conducting comprehensive psychological evaluations assessing emotional/personality functioning as well as cognition, intelligence, memory which includes testing for AD/HD (‘ADD’) as well as for learning disorders. She is skilled at conducting diagnostic interviews with both children and adults, writing integrated assessments reports for all age groups, and conducting feedback sessions with clients to present the results of the testing. She has completed numerous emotional/personality test batteries for the purpose of diagnosis as well as treatment planning. She has experience assessing intelligence, memory, achievement, developmental issues, learning issues, and attentional problems with community members, students, and veterans, with clients ranging in age from five to 89. With a background in career counseling, Dr. Freeman also has experience using various vocational assessment tools to help clients with a variety of issues including students struggling to pick a major or wanting to change majors, and professionals exploring career identity and making a career change.

Leading groups is a long-standing passion that started when Dr. Freeman worked with troubled teenagers in wilderness therapy, and expanded to where she has now conducted group therapy in a variety of clinical settings with a wide range of presenting issues and varying ages, leading groups for clients aged 8 to 80. One of the things she enjoys about group therapy is it provides countless opportunities for here-and-now, interpersonal process work. Over the past seven years she has co-led several process groups, forgiveness groups, social skills groups, mandated alcohol and drug groups, disordered eating groups, and self-hypnosis groups, and assisted in the development of a group therapy clinic. Dr. Freeman values taking the time to speak with group members before starting the group in order to educate them on how group therapy is different from individual therapy and to help increase their comfort in the group. She creates space in the group to discuss important group guidelines that are intended to ensure the safety and trust of all group members. Dr. Freeman is a member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and has participated in their 2-day training institutes.

ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL & PERSONAL INTERESTS:

Dr. Freeman enjoys community service and volunteerism. She was deeply moved after seeing the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast region, and was inspired to start a student organization, SHARE (Students Supporting Health and Recovery Efforts) as a means of responding to the needs of its victims. The mission of the organization is to serve the needs of communities affected by disasters through coordinated service and supportive volunteer work by Iowa State students. Dr. Freeman has also participated in several Red Cross trainings in Disaster Mental Health. In addition, a few years ago, Dr. Freeman had the opportunity to serve as an English/Spanish translator on a medical mission trip to Honduras.

Dr. Freeman has experience teaching and training and enjoys both of these activities. She has taught several psychology courses across a variety of topics, including Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Applied Psychology, and a Counseling Skills Lab. She has also had the opportunity to co-facilitate two graduate-level practicum classes. In all of her courses, she encourages students to become critical readers, thinkers, and writers; her goal is to promote their intellectual engagement with the subject material while having them learn about the important issues present in the field. Along with teaching, Dr. Freeman also values being a skilled and inspiring supervisor to counselors in training. She has supervised nine doctoral-level counselors and one clinical social work student. She has co-taught graduate-level practicum courses and taught a counseling skills class to undergraduates.

In her free time, Dr. Freeman enjoys spending time with her husband, her friends and family, and her two cats. She loves being outside whether that’s sitting on the beach, floating down a river, hiking in the mountains, gardening, or just going for a walk around the neighborhood. She is passionate about both her work with clients and her relationships with friends and family.