Judith Cates, M.A., LPC
Judith Cates, MA, LPC, is Administrative Assistant to Dr. Jerry Dunn, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC). Judy manages the Administrative Staff, and she brings to the agency over 30 years of administrative experience in the business world, working in such diverse roles as Educational Assistant for a job counseling and placement program, as Executive Assistant to the VP of Sales & Marketing for a $100 million manufacturer of industrial/commercial floor cleaning equipment; and as Orders Department Manager at a major software design company.
Judy is also a Board-Certified Licensed Professional Counselor. She attended Webster University in St. Louis, earning a Bachelors Degree in Psychology in 1998, and a Masters Degree in Counseling in 2001. She designed a children’s group during her counseling practicum using songs, stories and activities to address aggressive behaviors of children who had witnessed domestic violence. For her licensure internship, she counseled adults at Creve Coeur Counseling Associates. Judy’s education has focused on trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, complicated grief, and multicultural support systems. Prior to her employment in an administrative capacity at CAC, Judy maintained a part-time practice in which she used a combination of cognitive and multimodal therapies, along with various expressive arts interventions. Drawing upon her undergraduate Music Therapy training from Maryville University and other sources, she utilized media resources such as books, poems, films, and music to create an environment conducive to educating and stimulating discussion, providing a catalyst to help clients identify emotions, better understand their experiences, and explore new options. Judy’s interest in working with trauma survivors, especially refugees and torture survivors, has resulted in hundreds of hours of informal education and participation in multiple trauma and grief counseling workshops, including Children and Grief; Severe Trauma Counseling: Dissociation Identity Disorder and Ritual Abuse; Counseling Victims of Sexual Abuse; Helping Adult and Child Survivors of Trauma and Abuse; Resiliency in the Face of Exposure to Trauma; Which Model of Care for Children Under Extreme Stress?; Journalists and the Trauma of Columbine; Cognitively-Oriented Therapies for Physically or Sexually-Abused Women; Emotional and Cognitive Responses to Torture and War; Group Work with Women Survivors of Torture; and Building Strengths in Treating Adult Survivors of Severe Childhood Abuse. In 2002 and 2003, the St. Louis Counseling Association published a three-part article by Judy in their newsletter on The Use of Music in Counseling Interventions. In addition, several of her graduate school research papers explored topics such as Social Support Systems in a Multicultural Society; The Effect of Trauma on Emotional, Social and Spiritual Development; and Long-Term Effects of Child Abuse on the Victim and on Society.
Judy’s past volunteer experience includes participation on a local American Red Cross Disaster Action Team where she was trained in Disaster Action Team Orientation; Introduction to Disaster Services; Family Services - Providing Emergency Assistance; Shelter Operations and Simulation; Disaster Assessment; Mass Casualty Disaster; and Mass Care: An Overview. She facilitated two Healing the Brokenhearted Grief Conferences sponsored by local churches, and held positions over a 15-year period in another church setting as Teacher, Advisor and Music Chorister for adolescents and children.