Ben Rader
[Pronouns: He/His]
Ben started his work serving families in 1998, when he began work in a job assistance and counseling program in a community in Ohio, for a township with a high number of displaced workers. Before long, Ben became aware of the role that economic downshift played in the problems experienced by persons on his caseload, such as domestic conflict, depression, and substance use.
Later, Ben found further community-based work serving youth in the city of Columbus. In this role he witnessed again how social circumstances across the city impacted upon the choices, outcomes, and worldview of adolescents he served. Serving a diverse array of families from varying backgrounds across the city, Ben acquired a better understanding of historic factors and larger systems that shape individual’s experience of self.
Through his service work, Ben eventually came to the realization that in order to truly help families beyond the limits and influence of social realities, he was going to need further training. Drawing from his love for psychology, Ben sought opportunity to learn the theory and techniques of Individual Psychology, which lead him to enroll in the Adler School for Professional Psychology in Chicago Illinois (now Adler University). Ben entered the doctoral program, where he studied the practice of psychology and became acquainted with perspectives on Social Justice.
Ben did his dissertation on resilience styles demonstrated by persons overcoming homelessness, and graduated with his doctorate in 2008. Since then, Ben has worked in city of Milwaukee, with a varied career serving refugees, urban youth, and residents of assisted living homes.
He has worked as an adjunct professor of the graduate in counseling program at Mount Mary University and has served as a mental health consultant both for area Head Start programs as well as Milwaukee’s Wraparound program.
In 2012 Ben started Milwaukee Affiliate for Social Living (MASL) with a group of colleagues from Sebastian Family Psychology Practice. He is active with the Wisconsin Psychological Association’s Public Education Campaign, and has put together dozens of professional trainings. He has publications in the Journal of Individual Psychology and has organized community trainings and public education opportunities across the state.
Ben is the director of Psychological Purposes where he sees clients and families both in his private practice and in home as well as community settings. He also provides onsite psychological treatment services to assisted living care facilities around the city. When he is not working he enjoys time with his wife and two kids.
Aaron Pressie
[Pronouns: He/His]
Aaron has always had an uncanny knack to make himself comfortable where he happens to be. Growing up, Aaron experienced his earliest years were in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, which was undergoing its own changes and transformation during his time there. When Aaron was a senior in high school, he experienced a considerable change of his own when he relocated with his sister to La Crosse Wisconsin, where he would start anew as he worked towards graduation.
In La Crosse, Aaron acclimated to a new pace of living in this predominantly white community just off the banks of the Mississippi River. Here he would make home for himself participating in social life and coming to appreciate the landscape of the area through horseback riding and spending time outdoors.
His family values of education, open-mindedness, and service to others would serve to shape and guide the trajectory of his life and life’s work. Aaron’s earliest service work included work in corrections and residential settings, with a focus on substance treatment. After completing his bachelors degree, Aaron would experience a culture shift again as he made himself at home in the New England state of Vermont, where he would complete a Masters of Science in Mental Health at Trinity College.
Aaron’s commitment to serving others led him also to develop skills required for business administration and oversight. In 2006 Aaron completed a Certificate in Non-Profits and he has experience as a clinical supervisor.
Most recently, Aaron has committed his efforts to serving the underserved as a substance abuse mental health therapist working in the community setting in the Milwaukee area. He was amongst the first group of clinicians to provide onsite therapy and counseling services to students in Milwaukee Public Schools. Aaron approaches treatment holistically. His client care reflects a high appreciation for culture and social ecology, and he combines aspects of Cognitive Behavioral, Behavioral, and Adlerian strategies in his case conceptualization and treatment.
When he is not serving others in the community, Aaron prioritizes his family commitment as a loving grandfather and committed parent.
Elishia Pulliam
[Pronouns: She/Her]
Elishia has committed her life and her life’s work to championing those who have been left outside the social comforts and entitlements that most of us take for granted. Trained in law enforcement, Elishia saw psychology as an opportunity to make sense out of the social problems and challenges that she was employed to address in her life as an officer.
Elishia has had a tendency to play the role of trailblazer. In her undergraduate experience in Ladysmith Wisconsin, Elishia found employment at the local IGA, where she was the first black employee at this small town grocery store. Later, she would be first African-American offered a job in the town’s Sheriff Department. This also marked her initiation into law enforcement, where her commitment to justice and social justice would take root.
Through her experience in law enforcement Elishia was provided a unique perspective into the complex relationship between systems of justice and the behavior of community members. Ultimately, her growing appreciation of these variables ultimately led Elishia back to school in search of more impactful ways to promote the types of change she wished to see in the world. For Elishia, justice and social betterment go hand in hand. Without addressing the root cause of problems, all that law enforcement can do is respond to the problems.
After completing a Masters of science in counseling and psychology, Elishia focused her work in supporting youth and families experiencing involvement in the juvenile justice and child protective services systems. In her 15 years as a clinician, Elishia has brought her passion, drive, and commitment in creating impactful relationships with “hard to serve” youth and families. Elishia has a capacity to align with client’s who have been distrusting of providers and wary of outside help.
Throughout her experience as a community-based therapist, Elishia would draw from her own life experience and her deep understanding of the saluto-genic aspects of family, heritage, and community. Knowing that these very same factors often served as hardships for many, Elisha designed an approach in which she has embodied in her role as a therapist, the encouragement, advocacy, and modeling that her caseload so needed.
Elishia is proud and devoted mother (and grandmother!). Her infectious personality makes her an asset to clinical teams that she works on and in her role in law enforcement.