Hi! My name is Hunter, and welcome to Mind Trek Counseling! I am a licensed social worker with experience supporting adolescents, young adults, and families through life transitions (social, relational, career, and more), navigating relationships with family, friends, and partners, and exploring identity and self-awareness. I have extensive experience working with the LGBTQ+ community and with people exploring their sexuality or gender identity, as well as individuals managing ADHD and anxiety.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I understand the importance of finding a nonjudgmental space where you can explore your authentic self, and the power of being in community with others who see and accept you fully. I know the unique challenges of existing in a world that often defaults to heteronormative expectations, and I bring that understanding into my sessions. I take a relational and trauma-informed approach, believing that you are the expert on your own life and lived experience. My role is to walk alongside you as you decide how you want to see and create change.
I take a trauma-informed, strengths-based approach centered on safety, trust, and empowerment. Using motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we will explore what matters most to you, address the patterns that hold you back, and build toward lasting change.
My Background
I received my Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in Psychology, from Baldwin Wallace University, followed by my Master of Social Work from Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School. My education has shaped how I work with clients, drawing on social and systems-level thinking to understand how the self and larger systems influence each other.
My path to therapy has run through schools, community organizations, and clinical settings. As a school social worker in the Lorain City Schools, I provided counseling and case-management support to middle school students and their families, collaborating with teachers and parents to build intervention plans that actually fit each student's life. As a youth and family therapist in community behavioral health, I develop individualized treatment plans and use Motivational Interviewing and CBT to support behavior change, emotional regulation, and skill building.
Much of my career has centered on LGBTQ+ youth and community work at the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, where I worked on building social-emotional learning and health programs for middle and high schoolers, focused on coaching them to be an young adult, identity development, and coping skills.
The modalities I use include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), ADHD Executive Functioning Coaching, Trauma-Informed Care, a Strengths-Based and Client-Centered Approach, Psychoeducation, Mindfulness and Somatic Coping Skills, and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum and Facilitation.
How can I help?
Whether therapy is new to you or something you have tried before, I understand how vulnerable it can feel just to reach out. I want to get to know you: your interests, your creativity, the small things that make you who you are. Wherever you are starting from, I would love to hear your story, and I look forward to walking alongside you.
I see clients via secure telehealth anywhere in Ohio, whether you are in Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati, or in a smaller community like Ashtabula, Wooster, Zanesville, Chillicothe, Athens, or Portsmouth, where finding an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist nearby can be difficult.
Get in Touch with Hunter
Hunter Evans, LSW, MSW
(he/him)
My top specialties are: Neurodivergence(ADHD/Autism/AuDHD), LGBTQIA+ Therapy, and Trauma-Informed Care.
LGBTQ+ Identity & Affirming Therapy
Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, and having worked extensively with other members of the community, I understand the importance of providing a nonjudgmental space where you can talk openly about your experience exploring and belonging to the community. I take into consideration the unique challenges LGBTQ+ individuals face due to marginalization, and I understand that we exist within a society shaped by heteronormativity and cisnormativity, where our community may experience shame or stigma for not following the timelines or boxes society expects of us.
Holding an LGBTQ+ identity can shape our sense of self and how we interact with our social environment, and so can the many other intersecting identities we each hold. In our work together, you will never have to educate your therapist about your community or wonder whether your identity will be treated as a problem. You can bring your whole self into the room.
ADHD
I help clients understand how ADHD uniquely shows up in their own life, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all framework. Part of my work is unlearning the negative narratives around ADHD and the neurotypical expectations we have all been taught.
Using psychoeducation, I guide clients toward identifying their strengths and leveraging them to meet their goals, while collaboratively building patterns and routines that fit the way their brain actually works: not the systems or productivity standards that were never designed for neurodiversity. Together, we can move away from shame and self-doubt and toward a fuller picture of how your mind operates, and a sense of self-worth that does not depend on meeting neurotypical expectations.
Anxiety
Each of us experiences anxiety differently: in our thoughts, our actions, and our bodies. I take time to learn about you and your unique experience, then use a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach to reflect on the thinking patterns and triggers that shape how anxiety shows up in your daily life.
In our sessions, we build practical coping skills such as mindfulness and somatic relief. Beyond symptom management, I aim to help you understand the root of your anxiety and build a more balanced relationship with uncertainty, so that anxiety feels less like something happening to you and more like something you have tools to meet.
A Trauma-Informed Approach
I bring a trauma-informed approach to all the work I do. That means centering the core tenets of trauma-informed care: getting to know and understand you to establish safety, building trust over time, and promoting individual choice and empowerment, so that you can make the decisions that feel right for you and your journey.
I am under the supervision of Shiyue Qin, LISW-S, I.2102709-SUPV.