CHRISSIE SCHALKOFF, MS, PhD, CRC

Chrissie Schalkoff (she/her/hers) graduated with her BS in Biological Sciences from Clemson University, and then completed a Fulbright Scholarship year in Germany prior to beginning her graduate studies in North Carolina. She earned an MSPH and PhD in Health Behavior from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, followed by an MS in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling also from UNC Chapel Hill. During her time pursuing her PhD, she worked in rural Appalachian communities in North Carolina and Ohio that were experiencing opioid use and other substance use epidemics. Her research team collaborated with community members to understand local and regional drivers of substance use—including reinforcing layers of trauma, stigma, and sociocultural norms—and to increase access to harm reduction and non-stigmatizing treatment services in the area. After realizing that she wanted to pivot to the mental health counseling field to work more closely with individuals in a clinical role, she completed her graduate mental health counseling practicum and internship with the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health. During this time, she worked with individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders at both the UNC Carrboro STEP Clinic and the UNC Farm at Penny Lane therapeutic farm. Chrissie enjoys incorporating a public health lens into psychoeducation and mental health work and believes in the need for mental health clinicians to take both a systemic and person-centered approach with clients that considers not just an individual’s background, identity, and goals, but also the environment and systems that they must navigate. She has particular experience with mindfulness and mindful self-compassion techniques, as well as creative group therapy interventions (such as PhotoVoice/photography). Chrissie has worked with a variety of clients with anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. She strives to create a warm, safe, non-judgmental (and often humorous) space for clients to process challenges (and successes!) together. In her spare time, she enjoys rock climbing, swing and salsa dancing, trying and failing to bake cakes, and spending time with her partner, her friends, her cat, and her horse.