Jessica Kirkpatrick, Psychotherapist
Licensed Associate Counselor / LAC
MS in Marriage and Family Therapy
EMDR Part II

I remember when Jessica was a first year graduate student in my Parent-Child Relationship class. She was quite and reserved so it took me a long time to figure her out. Every summer I conduct an Adventure Therapy Training for my grad students and Jess was a participant. It was out on the ropes course that I clearly saw her heart and her strength as a Christian woman. She pushed herself to learn about all of the aspects of Adventure Therapy that I was teaching. She stepped up to the plate on every single challenge from jumping off of the 40 foot pamper pole trying to catch a trapeze bar (tied to a belay rope of course) to learning how to set up the belay systems. She became a strong factor in the synergy of her class. After seeing her in this setting I knew she had the ability to be a Capstone therapist which put her in the top percentage of the 150 plus grad students that I had taught and trained.

Her first year out of grad school we didn’t have an opening but as soon as one came open I called her and she accepted the job offer. Since then she has done nothing short of an excellent job as a Capstone therapist. She is smart, honest, real, tough, compassionate and talented. Her commitment to the Lord is apparent as well as her loyalty to Capstone. I am so thankful to have Jess as a part of the team and look forward to working with her for a long time. I am privately amused sometimes when one of her residents has a gruff old dad like me come in to Family Week and see that he has a therapist who may be younger than some of his children. It is pretty cool to see how much he respects and appreciates her by the end of the week because of the professional and productive job she does.

I purposefully hired young in all Capstone positions for our longevity. Young people with strong Christian character who are talented, competent, hard-working, humble, and loving make Capstone not only a very effective program but also a joy to work at.

Favorite Scripture: Habakkuk 3:19, “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”