Get to Know Create Counseling Centers, LLC: Jennifer Korotko

This March marks the one year anniversary of the relationship between St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square and Create Counseling Center, LLC.Meet Jennifer Korotko ATR, LCPC.Jennifer has been practicing since 2008 when she began working as an art therapist and counselor at an inpatient psychiatric hospital.  She has been actively involved in social services and non for profit work since 2001.Jennifer was first introduced to the field of art therapy while working as a nurse’s aide in a residential home for those living with HIV/AIDS in New Orleans.  She worked at both the home and the hospice often caring for individuals up until they passed.  Jennifer experienced firsthand the power of art therapy while participating in art therapy at the hospice in New Orleans.  She feel that she has been on the ‘right path’ since that experience and eventually finished up all the schooling required in order to professionally help others utilizing both her counseling and art therapy skillsCurrently, Jennifer is working on developing an art therapy support group for parents.  She hopes to provide babysitting services for the children of the parents allowing the parents to focus on themselves and their therapeutic needs during the 2 hour group.In addition to being an Art Therapist and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and co-founder of Create Counseling Center, LLC, Jennifer is the mother of two amazing little boys.  She recently gave birth to a baby boy named Cyrus who has Spina Bifida.  Her experience throughout the pregnancy post diagnosis and up until now has inspired her to eventually offer an additional support group to parents with special needs children.Jennifer originally came to Chicago was opportunity.  Torn between going to nursing school or finishing her BFA and going on into a Masters in counseling and art therapy, Chicago offered a lot in both of these fields.  Chicago is also currently the home of Jennifer’s sister and her in-laws, and she felt it made sense to continue on her path here.  Her first Chicago home was in Bucktown and then eventually moved to Humboldt Park.  Over the years, she has spent a lot of time in Logan Square and grew to love it along with its surrounding neighborhoods.  One of the goals when she started the private practice was to be community focused and she with fellow co-founder Cherie Lusky felt that Logan Square was just the community to plant seeds and watch it grow.Jennifer and Cherie found St. Luke’s through a Craigslist ad, posting for renting an office space.  She explains she felt completely shocked when she walked in to view the space, shocked in a good way because,  “I immediately felt as if this was one of those times in life where you just know, I knew this was the perfect place for Create Counseling Center.”Jennifer hopes to be one of the ‘go to’ counseling centers for local Logan Square residents.  She would like to provide more groups to the community offering a supportive space where she can address common (but not necessarily talked about often) issues such as depression, parenting stress, women struggles, men’s support groups, harm reduction substance abuse support, children of veterans support groups and so much more.For more information about Create Counseling Center, LLC, visit their website here.