Clinical Team, Blue Ridge

Clayton, GA

Diana Gordick, Ph.D.

Co-Clinical Director, Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (706) 982-1038
Email: dianag@snwp.com

Dr. Gordick is a licensed psychologist experienced in working with children, adolescents, adults, and families. She has worked in various aspects of the mental health field since 1993 and completed her doctorate in 2002.

She received her B.A. in Psychology from Michigan State University, her M.S. in Community Counseling with a focus in family systems from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology in Georgia State University. Diana enjoys working with teens struggling with self-concept, anxiety, depression, low-self esteem, peer difficulties, trauma, ADHD, learning difficulties, avoidance/withdrawal, oppositional behavior, and substance abuse.

Diana has specialized training in understanding and working with attention-deficit disorder as well as psychological assessment. In addition to working with teens and parents, she provides psycho-educational evaluations for Second Nature Blue Ridge. Diana enjoys hiking, camping, and renovating her 1928 home.

Jeff Scott, M.S., L.P.C.

Co-Clinical Director, Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (828) 301-0511
Email: jeffs@snwp.com

Responsibilities include Clinical Director, Treatment Team Coordination, and Primary Therapist. Jeff has been a clinician since 1994 and has been primarily involved in wilderness therapy since 2000. He is licensed as a professional counselor in Georgia and North Carolina. Jeff has specialized training and experience in adolescent development, addictions, identity disorders, sexual abuse, and is also a master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming. In addition to wilderness therapy, Jeff has worked with at risk youth in a wide variety of treatment modalities, including residential treatment centers, outpatient therapy and special needs boarding schools. Jeff has worked at SUWS of the Carolinas as well as the Aspen Achievement Academy. He has also worked at Charter Provo Canyon School and the Heritage School.

Lu Vaughn, LPC, NCC

Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (404) 558-8747
Email: lvaughn@snwp.com

Lu’s education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NC; a Master’s degree in Public Affairs and a MS in Community Counseling, both from Western Carolina University. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor. Prior to becoming a clinician, Lu worked as a Program Director with Boy’s Clubs of America and was a municipal Recreation and Parks Director. Her clinical experience includes 7 years with the State of North Carolina Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center; Director of an adult therapeutic community; Primary Therapist and Clinical Director for an adolescent therapeutic boarding school located in Bahia de Kino, Mexico; Clinical Director for an adolescent therapeutic boarding school located in Samoa; as well as three years previous experience as a primary therapist and Assistant Clinical Director at Second Nature Blue Ridge. Lu specializes in addictions treatment along with treating oppositional defiance, adoption issues, behavioral issues and family issues.

Outside of her experience Lu brings a love of the outdoors, adventure and travel. She believes in challenging herself and her students to get outside of their comfort zones to learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Tony Issenmann, Ph.D., L.M.F.T.

Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-2037
Cell: (828) 301-0304
Email: tissenmann@snwp.com

Tony was born and raised in the Midwest, near Dayton, Ohio. Before beginning his undergraduate studies, he moved to Switzerland for a year to learn about himself and others around the world. Upon returning to the States, Tony earned a B.A. in German with a History minor from Anderson University (Indiana). For his junior year of undergrad, Tony moved to Germany and completed a year of coursework at the Universität Konstanz. He then began graduate school and earned his Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Appalachian State University. He continued his graduate career at Virginia Tech, and he earned his Ph.D. in Human Development with an emphasis on Marriage and Family Therapy theories. Tony is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Tony has worked in a variety of settings including community agencies, a day treatment center for schizophrenic clients, and family therapy centers. He has worked with a varying population, but has focused his work primarily around the adolescent and parent system.

Before joining Second Nature, Tony worked at a community mental health agency in Ohio, where he worked with adolescents and their parents. Tony developed a program to help parents increase their parenting skills and develop a greater awareness of their family’s dynamics. Tony felt the traditional outpatient setting was a barrier to effective therapeutic work with adolescents. He believes the wilderness setting provides adolescents with an ideal environment for the experiential learning necessary for meaningful change. Tony embraces experiential learning and utilizes interventions from family systems, cognitive-behavioral and choice theory.

Tony has extensive experience working with adolescents with oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, substance abuse/dependence, ADHD, depression, and anxiety, as well as individuals with anger management problems, grief issues, and enmeshed/disengaged family systems. When not working, Tony enjoys taking hikes with his wife and their Newfoundland - Highland. Tony is also a runner and has recently completed his first marathon.

Erika Czerwinski, Psy.D.

Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (510) 919-4006
Email: Erikac@snwp.com

Erika Czerwinski holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is dedicated to understanding and navigating the complexities that often define the transition from childhood to adulthood. For fifteen years she has worked closely with teenagers and their families, helping them work through problematic feelings and develop more adaptive ways to build and maintain relationships.

Erika received her BA in film and psychology at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. Interested in psychological development, family systems, and adolescence, she pursued work in the fields of attachment therapy and wilderness therapy. Through these models she recognized the importance of the adolescent's sense of value, self-expression and family involvement in adolescent treatment. In 2000, Erika co-founded and directed the non-profit wilderness therapy organization InnerRoads. InnerRoads deepened her curiosity for adolescent psychology and intervention, leading her toward her doctoral studies.

Erika received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. Her research focused on adolescent development and psychoanalytic theory. She received extensive training in child, adolescent, and family treatment, psychological assessment, and clinical theory. Erika completed her internship at UCSF San Francisco General Hospital in the Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Department. She continues to pursue questions in contemporary psychoanalytic theory, neuropsychology, and theories and practices that explore "what works for teens and their families."

Erika has extensive experience working with clinically complex adolescents and those who struggle with attachment issues, grief/ loss, oppositional behavior, and fragile sense of self. She brings sensitivity, curiosity, and presence to her work at Second Nature, helping boys and their families move toward health and healing. She is committed to creating a comprehensive, compassionate model of care that helps teenagers and their parents sort through difficult issues and build successful relationships. When not working, Erika enjoys yoga, foreign travel, climbing, Argentine tango, devising new baking recipes, and writing.

Kelly Wedell, EdS, LPC 

Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (828) 545-4103
Email: kellyw@snwp.com

Kelly is a licensed professional counselor experienced in working with adolescents, adults and families in various mental health settings focusing primarily on trauma and substance abuse. She received her MS in community counseling from Western Carolina University and her EdS in mental health counseling education from The University of Montana where she spent several years as a primary therapist at Chrysalis, an all girls therapeutic boarding school.

While in private practice for the past several years she has stayed connected with the therapeutic wilderness community by conducting the parent education day for a wilderness therapy program and co-created Touchstone, a post-graduate family wilderness weekend to reconnect students and their family with the magic of the woods. Kelly enjoys working with teens and their families who are navigating the destructive coping often associated with trauma, substance abuse and core developmental wounding.

Kelly has specialized training in EMDR, a trauma-based therapy, Hakomi, a body-focused mindfulness approach, addiction and recovery treatment and family systems. Outside of work she enjoys mountain biking, yoga, camping, rafting and being converted from a snowboarder to a skier by her husband and daughter.

Greta Lutman, M.A., LCAS

Primary Therapist

Phone: (706) 212-2037
Fax: (706) 212-0354
Cell: (706) 968-5843
Email: gretal@snwp.com

Greta graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology in 1988, and a Masters from Appalachian State University in Agency Counseling in 1992 with specializations in Substance Abuse Counseling and Marriage and Family Counseling. She is a Licensed Addictions Specialist.

After several years of working in in-patient substance abuse and eating disorder units, Greta discovered wilderness therapy and believes it to be a most effective setting for adolescents and their families to begin the change process. She was fortunate to have worked for three years at Carlbrook School where she served as Assistant Clinical Director and enjoyed the relationships that a longer-term intervention afforded.

As a clinician, Greta attempts to focus all of her attention on understanding the person she is sitting with (no matter age, gender, role, or what their struggles may be) and on her own experience of that person. Her goal is to understand the function of each person's behaviors and beliefs in a system, how all members relate, and how adjusting the structure of a system can bring relief, change, and growth.

Greta works well with adolescents struggling with depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, addiction, identity problems, adoption issues, and individuation problems. Taking a trauma-informed approach, she understands that many problems in adolescence are caused or exacerbated by unresolved grief and trauma. Seeing the family as the "client," Greta enjoys helping parents become agents for change.

Greta's strong emphasis is on assisting clients in "re-envisioning" their difficulties by guiding them towards the awareness of their inner landscape through Gestalt work, guided imagery, timeline work, and other highly personal and metaphoric work. In this way, the client becomes his or her own best resource for healing.

Viewing, collecting and occasionally making art; mid-century modern furniture and decorative arts, experiencing exotic ethnic cuisines, jumping on her trampoline, spending time at galleries and studios with her husband David, and exploring Asheville, where she lives.