Hello, and welcome to Mind Trek Counseling! My name is Alexis Koran, and I’m very glad that you are taking this important step toward caring for your mental health!
Maybe you feel stuck. You know something in your life isn't working, but you're not quite sure how to change it. You may be struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, grief, or simply the feeling that the life you're living isn't quite the life you want. Or maybe you're a parent watching your child struggle — with big emotions, school, friendships, or worries they can't quite put into words — and you're not sure how to help.
Maybe you've spent years trying to meet expectations — your family's, society's, or your own ideas about where you should be by now. Or maybe you've developed ways of coping that once helped you get through difficult experiences but are now making your life harder.
I believe there is a reason we do what we do. Rather than asking, "What's wrong with me?" therapy can be a place to get curious: Where did this pattern come from? What has it done for me? Is it still working? What do I actually want?
I approach therapy with the belief that you are already worthy, exactly as you are. We can understand your patterns with compassion rather than shame and use what we discover to experiment with new ways of thinking, responding, and living. There is no single "right" way to do this. Together, we'll pay attention to what works, what doesn't, and what your experiences can teach us.
My hope is that therapy helps you understand yourself more deeply and gives you a greater sense of agency — the freedom to decide what you want to keep, what you're ready to change, and what a better experience of your life looks like to you.
My Background
I earned my Master of Social Work from Cleveland State University and am a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) in Ohio. My clinical experience spans substance use counseling, inpatient behavioral health, and community mental health. I have provided individual and group counseling to clients ranging in age from 6 to 70, with much of my work focused on anxiety, depression, trauma, executive function struggles, emotional regulation, and navigating difficult life experiences.
My approach is integrative, drawing from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), psychodynamic, Gestalt, narrative, somatic, and mindfulness-based approaches. I have additional education and training in play therapy, art therapy, ADHD, trauma-focused approaches, and DBT.
My work as a therapist is also deeply informed by my background in mindfulness and embodied practice. I hold a certificate of completion in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and have been a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) for eight years. These experiences have taught me to approach the full range of human experience with patience and curiosity, paying attention to both mind and body rather than treating difficult thoughts or emotions as problems that simply need to disappear.
How can I help?
You don't have to have everything figured out before coming to therapy, and you don't need to become someone different before you can meet yourself with compassion. Whatever you're carrying — or whatever your child is carrying — we can approach it with curiosity rather than judgment or shame. When you're ready, I'd be honored to walk alongside you.
I see clients in person in Cleveland Heights and via secure telehealth anywhere in Ohio — whether you're in Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati, or in a smaller community like Ashtabula, Wooster, Zanesville, Chillicothe, Athens, or Portsmouth, where finding a child and teen therapist nearby can be difficult.
Get in Touch with Alexis
Alexis Koran, LSW, MSW
My top specialties are ADHD, Children/Family,Trauma, and LGBTQ+.
ADHD
Living with ADHD can sometimes feel like spending years being told you're doing life the "wrong" way. You may have internalized messages that you're lazy, unmotivated, too much, not trying hard enough, or that you should just be able to function differently.
I approach ADHD with curiosity rather than judgment. Instead of trying to make you fit someone else's definition of how you "should" function, we'll get curious about how your brain actually works. What helps? What gets in the way? What expectations are useful, and which ones leave you feeling ashamed or defeated?
Together, we'll experiment with strategies, keep what works, and throw out what doesn't. The goal isn't to make you better at pretending you don't have ADHD. It's to help you understand yourself, work with your brain rather than constantly fighting against it, and find more freedom to build a life that works for you.
Kids & Teens Therapy: Play & Art-Based Approaches
Children and teenagers rarely walk into therapy saying, "I'm anxious" or "I'm carrying something heavy." Instead, it shows up as meltdowns, school refusal, stomachaches, withdrawal, perfectionism, anger, or a kid who suddenly seems like a stranger at the dinner table. If you're a parent seeing these signs, you're not overreacting — you're paying attention.
I work with children as young as 6 and with teens navigating anxiety, big emotions, ADHD, trauma, self-esteem, identity, and the everyday pressures of growing up. Sessions are built around how young people actually communicate — through play, art, movement, and stories — not just sitting and talking.
Play is a child's first language. Long before kids can explain what's wrong, they show us — through the characters they choose and the stories they build. In my sessions, play isn't a warm-up before the "real" therapy. It is the therapy. I have additional training in play therapy and use it especially with children ages 6–10 working through anxiety, trauma, emotional regulation challenges, and life changes like divorce, loss, or a move — helping kids recognize, tolerate, and express big feelings at their own pace, with a trusted adult alongside them.
For the things that are hard to say out loud, drawing, painting, and other creative expression offer another way in. I incorporate art-based techniques to help kids and teens externalize worries so they feel more manageable, tell the story of a hard experience through images, or simply use creating as a way to settle and self-regulate. No artistic skill is required — the point is never the product, always the process.
Parents are part of the process, too. I'll help you understand what your child's play and artwork are telling us and give you concrete tools to support regulation at home, because kids do best when the adults around them understand what's happening and how to respond. Available in Cleveland Heights and by telehealth for families throughout Ohio.
Trauma & Emotional Regulation
Trauma can shape how we see ourselves, other people, and the world around us. It can also leave us with ways of coping that made a lot of sense when we developed them but may be making life harder now. I approach these patterns with curiosity and compassion rather than asking, "What's wrong with you?" Together, we can explore where your responses came from, what they have helped you survive, and what you may be ready to do differently
With children, especially ages 6–10, I use play-based approaches, emotional education, and co-regulation to help kids understand and express experiences they may not yet have words for. Play gives us a way to explore emotions and patterns while building a child's capacity to recognize, tolerate, and regulate big feelings.
Whether I'm working with a child or an adult, I want clients to understand that the ways they've learned to survive do not define who they are. We can make room for what happened, understand its impact, and find more freedom in how you relate to yourself, your emotions, and your life now.
LGBTQ+ Identity & Life Transitions
Figuring out who you are and what you want can be complicated, especially when you're sorting through family expectations, cultural messages, relationships, and all the ideas about what your life "should" look like by now. I especially enjoy working with young adults navigating identity, relationships, changing roles, and the often messy process of building a life that feels like their own.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I also know that representation matters. LGBTQ+ clients deserve a space where they don't have to educate their therapist about their community or wonder whether their identity will be misunderstood or treated as a problem. You can bring your whole self into the room.
Together, we can get curious about which beliefs and expectations are truly yours and which ones you may have inherited along the way. My goal isn't to help you find the "right" path. It's to help you understand yourself more deeply, clarify what matters to you, and find more freedom to choose where you want to go from here.
I am under the supervision of Shiyue Qin, LISW-S, I.2102709-SUPV.