Crossroads Christian Counseling

Christian counseling works to discover the good longings of our hearts and how God means for us to live.

"I would wholeheartedly recommend CrosRoads Christian Counseling to all those who are hurting or in crisis. Many of those whom I referred to CrossRoads have called me to tell me of the tremendous help and healing that has occurred in their lives."

Tom Ricks,
Pastor of Green Tree Community Church

Our Staff

Click a staff member's name to read more.

Directors
Doug Samsel, MA, LPC - Executive Director
Robert Gordon, PhD, LMFT - Associate Director

Senior Counselors
Diane Powell, PhD, LPC
Peter Maynor, MAC, LPC
Julie Reid, MEd, LPC, CTS
Ashley Lare Watson, MAC, LPC
Lilian Werner, MAC, LPC

Staff Counselors
Petra Blum, MAC, LPC
Ellen Marting, MAMFT, LMFT
Jennifer Vonier, MAC, LPC

Counselors In Training
Eric Baile, M.Div, MAC, PLPC
Leslie Fisher, MA, PLPC
Tomoko Kabeya, MAC, CIT
Tim Jones, MAC, MDIV, CIT
Charity Jones, MAC, PLPC

Support Staff
Jeanne Crivello - Office Manager
Jacqueline Lacey - Office Assistant
Steve Heerboth - Manager of Ministry

Directors
Doug Samsel, MA, NCC, LPC
Doug Samsel is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Missouri and Nationally Certified Counselor. Doug has worked with Dr. Gordon for the last 16 years and been the Associate Director of CrossRoads since its inception in 1998. In September of 2003, Doug and Bob traded positions and Doug is now the Executive Director. Doug continues to seek to live out the mission of CrossRoads, "We Were Made To Be More," struggling to live and love well in a beautiful and broken world. His area's of specialization include: sexual abuse, marriage, individuals in broken relationships and children. Doug enjoys living in one of the historic districts of Saint Louis with his wife Carrie and son Kearen doing projects together on their home.

Dr. Bob Gordon, Ph.D., LMFT
Dr. Bob Gordon is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Missouri and a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and family Therapists. After 14 years of private practice, he was asked by the Board of Central Christian Counseling Center to join them as Executive Director in June of 1998. He along with Doug Samsel, Associate Director, created CrossRoads Christian Counseling. Dr. Gordon's passion to press the truth of the gospel into broken hearts has become the energy and drive of CrossRoads. Though the center offers a full range of biblically-based counseling services, Dr. Gordon's specialties include: Leadership issues, sexual abuse, individual counseling, marriage therapy and systemic family issues. He resides in Chesterfield with his wife Christine, son Andrew age 14 and daughter Kelsey age 18, 2 cats and 1 dog.

Senior Counselors
Peter Maynor, MAC, LPC
Senior Therapist Peter Maynor works with individuals and couples to bring about restoration and healing through a process of interpersonal therapy. With continual encouragement and supportive empathy, Peter draws out the deeper concerns, longings, and fears in his client's heart in order to bring the dark things into the light. Peter enjoys working with individuals struggling with relational and spiritual matters, depression, addiction, grief, abuse, sexuality, or mental illness. He has also lead all the Men's Wounded Heart groups at Crossroads for the past five years, gaining tremendous experience working with those that have been harmed by abuse. He has over six years of experience in the counseling field and has been mentored by some of the best therapists in St Louis. He has several years experience working with persons struggling with chronic mental illness including schizophrenia and Bi-Polar disorder. Peter received his Masters in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary after studying philosophy as an undergraduate.

Peter lives in the Central West End with his wife and two children. He is an elder at Grace and Peace Fellowship Church, P.C.A. God has used several critical events in Peter's life to shape his faith and his calling, including the deaths of two of his brothers. He offers the counsel of a wounded healer to those that sit with him in the counseling office.

Diane Powell, PhD, LPC
Diane Powell has been employed as a counselor by CrossRoads Christian Counseling Center since its conception in 1998. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Missouri. Dr. Powell is also currently an adjunct assistant professor in counseling at Covenant Theological Seminary.

Diane has been practicing counseling since 1983 and earned her PhD in Marital and Family Therapy from St. Louis University in 1992. Prior to counseling, Diane and her husband Gary served as full time campus ministers for 6 years with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Diane specializes in individual therapy with adults and children, marital and family therapy and has advanced training in abuse recovery issues. She also provides clinical supervision and training for counselor licensure.

She is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and a clinical member and approved supervisor of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Diane has been married for 28 years to Gary and has two children, Bree and John.

Julia Reid, M.Ed, NCC, LPC, CTS
Julia Reid has been employed as a counselor by CrossRoads Christian Counseling Center since its conception in 1998. She is a National Certified Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor in Missouri. Since June of 2004 she has been a Certified Trauma Specialist through the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists. She was a counselor at Central Christian Counseling Center from 1994 until they formed CrossRoads in 1998. Previously she received supervision and worked as a therapist with Mr. Mike Miller, LPC at Christian Family Guidance Center, Dr. Paul Wang and Associates, and Dr. John Forhetz from Christian Counseling and Psychological Services. Julia obtained her Masters in Counseling from the University of Missouri - St. Louis in 1990.

Julia's specialty areas include individual mental health counseling, especially in the areas of anxiety, grief and trauma. She has had advanced training connected with the issue of sexual abuse and rape, crises intervention, and traumatic loss. She also works with premarital, marital and family issues.

She is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists.

Julia lives with her husband, Marvin, and has 4 adult children and 5 young grandchildren.

Ashley Lare Watson, MAC, LPC
Ashley Watson is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Missouri. She received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in January 2003. As a therapist, Ashley was born and raised at CrossRoads. She has held a number of positions here over the years, including Wounded Heart Coordinator, Intake Coordinator, and Editor of the organization's newsletter, Journey to the CrossRoads. Ashley has worked extensively with individuals and groups dealing with abuse issues and broken relationships. She counts it a tremendous privilege to work with the brave men, women, and teens who walk through her office door. Ashley enjoys living in University City with her husband, Pete, and silly dog, Buddy.

Lilian Werner, MAC, LPC
Lilian Werner has a background in secondary education and received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Seminary in 1998. She has been employed at CrossRoads for 96 years, first as a CIT, and now as a Licensed Professional Counselor. She works predominately with adolescents, women and families with issues of eating disorders and related concerns, abuse and co-dependency. She has received advanced training in the areas of sexual abuse and eating disorders.

Lilian lives with her husband Brad, children Inna (15) and Ivan (9 months), 1 dog and several cats. They are in the process of planting an urban church in St. Louis.

Staff Counselors
Petra S. Blum, MA, NCC, LPC
Petra is a Licensed Professional Counselor, with 13 years experience providing individual, couples, and family therapy. She came to Crossroads Christian Counseling after having provided individual, group and family therapy for 11 years for children, adolescents, and adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and other forms of interpersonal trauma and grief.

Petra's clinical interests include emotion-focused therapy, women's issues, sexual abuse and sexual brokenness, grief, depression and anxiety, and expressive therapies (narrative, art).

Petra's specialties and experience include relational trauma, grief, depression and anxiety, sexual development and sexual brokenness, childhood trauma, art and expressive therapies, and parenting for healthy spiritual and emotional development. She enjoys teaching, training, and writing on clinical and theological issues.

Ellen Marting, MA, LMFT
Ellen Marting is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of Missouri. She received her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2003. Ellen has a passion to do ministry through pastoral counseling in order to provide healing to broken hearts and broken relationships. She provides individual, couple, and family therapy for a variety of clinical issues. Ellen specializes in eating disorders, anxiety disorders, abuse recovery, relational therapy, and adolescents. Ellen has also been trained with the Prepare/Enrich program to provide premarital and marital enrichment counseling. She is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Jennifer Vonier, MAC, LPC
Jennifer Vonier received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary and joined the staff of CrossRoads in 2005. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Missouri.

Jennifer's clients include couples, and families wrestling with broken relationships. She has a special interest in women's issues and has received advanced training in the area of abuse recovery. Other areas of focus include work with adult children and their parents, marital difficulties, boundaries and codependency, anxiety and depression. In addition to her individual and couples work, Jennifer enjoys coordinating and leading CrossRoads Wounded Heart Groups for survivors of sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. Prior to her work as a therapist, Jennifer had the privilege of 7 years in women's ministry, walking alongside hurting women in their journey toward hope.

Counselors In Training
Eric Baile, M. Div, MAC
Eric Baile joined the CrossRoads staff in July of 2007 after completing his Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Counseling degrees from Covenant Theological Seminary. Eric has experience working with couples, children, and individuals in the areas of relational issues, conflict resolution, sexual addictions and struggles, anger management, marriage counseling, divorce related issues, and emotional abuse. Eric particularly enjoys working with men and is currently working with his supervisor, Peter Maynor, to develop a ministry for men struggling with sexual addictions. Eric is currently working towards licensure as a Professional Counselor. He resides with his wife and son in the Ballwin area.

Leslie Fisher, MA, PLPC
Leslie Fisher recently joined CrossRoads Christian Counseling, but has been practicing counseling in St. Louis for over 4 years. She received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2004. Her experience includes working with groups, families, and individuals. Leslie specializes in the areas of sexuality, depression, grief, divorce recovery, and singleness. She enjoys living in University City where she plans to reside after her upcoming marriage to Kevin Bley in August of 2008.

Tomoko Kabeya, MAC, CIT

Tomoko Kabeya received her Master or Arts in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2006. She is currently working towards state licensure under the supervision of Doug Samsel, MA, NCC, LPC.

Tomoko grew up in Japan and came to St. Louis in 2000. Through her experiences, she has a strong desire to work with those alienated from their home, country, culture, others, and themselves. She is a bi-lingual counselor (Japanese) and works with both individuals and couples.

Tim Jones, M.Div., MAC
Tim completed a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Seminary in 2006. He is a provisionally licensed therapist, expecting to receive his license in the summer of 2008. He has worked in various contexts, including counseling recovering drug and alcohol addicts at Sunshine Ministries, working with men struggling with various degrees of sexual addiction and compulsion, and working with children and adolescents with varying degrees of mental and emotional challenges at BJC Behavioral Health. He enjoys working with couples and with individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, various addictions and compulsions, and with those struggling with current and past abuse issues.

Tim lives in St. Louis with his wife Kristin, son Clyde, and dog Hank.

Charity Jones, MAC, PLPC
Charity Jones joined Crossroads Christian Counseling in January 2007. She received her Master of Arts in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2006. Her experience includes working with groups, families, couples, adolescents, and individuals.

Charity specializes in the areas of sexuality, depression, abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional), broken relationships, boundaries, family systems, and cross-cultural issues. She draws experience professionally from working for 2 private counseling centers, co-facilitating Wounded Heart groups, a supervised visitation program, and a state mental health agency. She draws experience personally from years of living overseas in a culture where shame and honor are the judge, where women are marginalized (particularly in areas of sexuality), where the group/family is worth more than the individual, and where abuse is said to be condemned but is known as a common practice. Charity is enjoying married life in South City Saint Louis with her new husband, Stephen Jones.