Located at: 3455 Wilkens Ave, Suite #301 Baltimore, MD 21229
Tel: 443-695-7851
Email: freestatebha@gmail.com
OUR TEAM
Dwight Polk, MSW, LCSW-C
The focus of Dwight's practice is working with those with stress, depression, self-esteem issues, or those who have experienced traumatic events such as sexual abuse, death, or cumulative trauma. Dwight has years of experience working with general clients, emergency first responders, and college-age students. He is trained in Critical Incident Stress Management and is a nationally certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist. EMDR assists those with traumatic memories and PTSD to process past events. At times, his practice may be limited to members of the uniformed services (fire, police, EMS, or military).
As a former paramedic, Dwight has a unique understanding of issues surrounding the lives of first responders. As a former faculty member at UMBC, he has tremendous experience with college age students and their concerns such as self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and LGBT issues. He also has experience working with males involved with social fraternities.
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Dwight is a nationally recognized speaker and has published three textbooks and numerous articles in the field of mental health issues and emergency services. His practice is limited to individuals 18 years and older. Feel free to contact Dwight with any questions using our "Contact Us" link.
John Caruso, MSW, LCSW-C
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John has over 15 years of experience providing direct care in the field of mental health (inpatient, outpatient, emergency room and private practice). In addition, he has over twenty years working as a fire fighter, Emergency Medical Technician and a critical incident stress management provider with the Howard County, Maryland Division of Fire/Rescue. In private practice, he maintains a focus on providing cognitive behavioral therapy as a symptom management tool for trauma and PTSD related diagnoses. John has a special interest in working with EMS, firefighters, police, & military clients. As a seasoned clinician, he has provided a variety of services to contracted organizations from critical incident response, grief support and corporate downsizing.
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John is an approved trainer through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. John was instrumental in redeveloping the Howard County Fire/Rescue Critical Incident Team. He led a team of Howard County Fire/Rescue personnel to the Washington D.C. Naval Yard and the Columbia Mall following high-profile, large-scale incidents.
Tonya C Phillips, PhD, LCSW-C, LCADC
Dr. Tonya Phillips is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of professional practice experience. Dr. Phillips has spent the past ten years of her career providing evidenced based clinical services to active duty military personnel. Previously she held positions at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and Baltimore Crisis Response – Mobile Crisis Team. Many of the service members and clients that she has treated have had chronic PTSD, anxiety, substance use and mood disorders. She is trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral therapy.
Tonya holds multiple degrees including a Bachelor of Social Work from Coppin State University, a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland Baltimore, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from Morgan State University. She also is a Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor.
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She is well versed in military culture and understands many of the challenges that this population experiences. In addition to her clinical practice, she has experience with consultation, teaching and supervising newly licensed social workers. She is a talented facilitator with skill in conducting trainings and education in social work education, life skills training, stress management, substance abuse education and training, conflict resolution just to name a few. Tonya’s practice will focus on adults aged 18 and older. Adolescents ages 16 & 17 will be considered on a case by case basis.
Terri Conley, MA, LCPC
Terri is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) with over 20 years of experience providing direct care in the field of mental health including inpatient, outpatient, day programs, emergency room crisis intervention, and private practice. Terri also has worked in Correctional Treatment facilities as well as local hospitals and outpatient clinics. She specializes in working with adults experiencing varying degrees of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and other mood disorders.
She is a Baltimore native and completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Towson University. Terri is person who values her family and friends and loves to travel when time permits.
Ellen Line, MSSW, LMSW
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Ellen has worked with clients from age 5 to 85 in a variety of settings. In 2017, she completed her MSSW at the University of Texas at Austin. As an East Coast native, she decided to return to Baltimore to serve the mental health needs of its residents. She has over five years' experience working with individuals who are experiencing anxiety, depression, and PTSD or other trauma reactions.
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Ellen is a connected, compassionate, and engaged therapist. She cultivates caring, nonjudgmental healing relationships with her clients. In the context of a healing relationship, she helps clients to address challenges by identifying patterns and areas where change may be possible. As a yoga instructor and self-described "brain nerd," she likes to share mindfulness practices and brain science with clients. She also uses tools from Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Drawing on individual and environmental strengths, she strives to meet clients where they are to help develop psychological and behavioral solutions that will truly work for them.
Simon Freyou, DNP, RN, ANP-BC
Dr. Freyou will be joining our team in January 2020 to provide medication management and continuing care. He is board certified as an Adult Nurse Practitioner by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Dr. Freyou holds a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. He is currently doing post-doctoral work at Wilkes University to obtain certification as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
Dr. Freyou is known throughout the medical community as being an empathetic and compassionate medical provider who truly cares for his patients. Dr. Freyou is an avid gardener and loves to travel. He also served as a second lieutenant in the Louisiana National Guard as a platoon leader.
Christine (Chris) Fay
Chris Fay, Office Manager, is recently retired from Howard County government, having worked in the Office of Human Resources She graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Maryland, with a concentration in Law & Public Policy and Personnel Management. She has been an active member of the Marine Corps League Auxiliary since 2001. She has served as Junior and Senior Vice president as well as treasurer/secretary and then for five years as president for the LCPL. Robert Deane Unit. On the Department(State) level, Ms. Fay has served as Secretary and Junior and Senior Vice President. For three years, she served as the Department President for the Marine Corps League Auxiliary. Presently, she serves as their Judge Advocate.
Chris Haugen
Chris has 10 years of experience as a counselor. Most of his work has been in chemical addictions with clients who were involved with the criminal justice system. He also performed assessments for clients on United States Probation and Pre-TrialServices
Most recently Chris helped firefighters from across the country with posttraumatic stress at the International Association of Fire Fighters’ Center of Excellence, a residential treatment center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. It was a life changing experience for him, and he continues to be fueled by the treasured memories of the firefighters that he worked with there.
Chris attended graduate school at Boston University where he completed a Master ofSocial Work and a Master of Education degree in policy, planning, and administration.Chris’s practice will be limited to adult clients. He will be seeing individual clients aswell as running several trauma groups for our practice. Chris is well versed on manytreatment modalities including EMDR.
