Ann Butcher Builds a Trauma-Focused Resource for Her Rural Community

For Ann Butcher, serving a rural community means paying close attention to the resources that families cannot easily find. Her work as a Mental Health Clinician has brought her alongside children, teenagers, college students, and families affected by trauma. It has also led her to concentrate on a particular local need: support for young children, including those under age five.

That focus now shapes Ann’s work in Potsdam, New York. She is building her private practice, North Country Healing, while working full time as a counselor at the SUNY Potsdam Counseling Center. The two roles allow her to assist people at different stages of life while continuing to develop a specialized resource for the wider community.

Finding a Direction in Trauma-Focused Work

Ann entered college in 2008 already knowing that she wanted to work with people who had experienced trauma. What remained uncertain was the population she hoped to serve. After completing her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling at St. Lawrence University in 2014, her direction became clearer through work with children and teenagers involved in foster care or the court system.

Those experiences introduced her to families navigating varied and often complex circumstances, including generational trauma and physical or sexual abuse. Ann later joined a nonprofit agency serving people affected by domestic violence and physical and sexual abuse. She describes that setting as the place where she found her reason for becoming a therapist.

Over seven years at the nonprofit, Ann worked as part of a multidisciplinary team assisting families through different forms of healing. The work deepened her understanding of trauma and gave her sustained experience with children, teenagers, and caregivers. Rather than viewing one person’s needs in isolation, she encountered families whose experiences called for collaboration among professionals and careful attention to each household’s circumstances.

Recognizing a Gap for Young Children

A recurring concern emerged during those nonprofit years. Ann saw that her area had limited assistance for children under five, even as families sought ways to help young children affected by trauma. She decided that this was where she could make a meaningful contribution.

Her professional development reflects that priority. Already a Licensed Mental Health Therapist with a Diagnostic Privilege, Ann is working toward a certificate in Child-Centered Play Therapy. Her aim is to bring more specialized services to a vulnerable population while continuing to support community members affected by trauma.

The emphasis is especially relevant to the kind of place Ann calls home. She has lived in St. Lawrence County for 42 years and values the rural community near the Adirondack Mountains. Her private practice is rooted in that connection. North Country Healing represents an effort to add another local option for children and families rather than requiring the community’s needs to fit within existing resources.

Creating Balance While Building a Practice

After seven years in nonprofit work, Ann changed paths and moved to SUNY Potsdam. There, she assists members of the college population through the Counseling Center. At the same time, she is developing North Country Healing on the side, with the hope of eventually building a full-time private practice that can serve community members of all ages.

The transition broadened her day-to-day work without replacing her commitment to children and families. Supporting college students gives Ann a role within another part of her local community, while the private practice creates room to pursue the specialized focus she identified through years of trauma work.

A Practice Grounded in Community

Ann’s story is not simply about moving from one workplace to another. It is about allowing direct experience to clarify where a community resource may be missing, then taking practical steps to help build it. Her education, nonprofit service, counseling-center role, and ongoing training all meet in that effort.

She remains motivated by the children and families she has worked with and by the opportunity to accompany them on a path toward healing. In a rural area she knows well, Ann is shaping North Country Healing around a clear purpose: offering thoughtful, trauma-focused care while expanding the kinds of support available close to home.