For more than thirty years, April has focused on helping families overcome challenges in their lives. She is passionate about helping others find healing, hope and purpose, and specializes in trauma recovery, suicide prevention, and marriage restoration.
While April was earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Child Development from Purdue University she worked at a community center mentoring at-risk youth and in Child Protective Services at the Department of Child Services.
In 1997, she earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude, and began working as a clinical in-patient therapist in a Detroit psychiatric hospital helping suicidal youth who had histories of complex trauma and abuse. After moving to Indianapolis, April continued working as therapist and later became the manager at a residential treatment facility for youth. During that time, she provided oversight to direct care staff, case managers and therapists who served in a secure unit, a young children’s unit and an adolescent girls’ unit.
In 2001, April became the executive director of a domestic violence shelter, where she developed trauma informed programming for families with histories of trauma, and in 2014 she and her business partner began planning for Care to Change. April has guided a variety of nonprofits across the U.S. through leadership transitions, board development, and fundraising programs. She has also served children at several orphanages in China and has worked with America World Adoption Agency completing home studies and providing pre/post-adoptive support to families.
April is licensed as a clinical social worker. She is a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) practitioner and certified educator and a Prepare-Enrich & SYMBIS pre-marriage and marriage facilitator. She is trained in Experiential Therapy, Crisis Intervention Teams and NOVA crisis intervention, Theraplay, and the Suicide PAIR program and is certified in EMDR. April is a QPR Master Trainer, is an approved Focus on the Family Counselor, serving on their Michigan Hope Restored marriage intensive team. April is also a Guide for Onsite who offers world-renowned emotional wellness retreats, therapeutic intensives, residential trauma care, and digital resources.
April is available to train groups on a variety of topics including QPR (suicide prevention), trauma informed care, TBRI/parenting, compassion fatigue, communication/conflict resolution, and marriage preparation/enrichment. Other topics can be found on our workshops page.
If you need individual, parenting, or marriage intensive work, email April.
April and her husband, Randy (also a certified Prepare/Enrich Marriage Facilitator, and marriage retreat facilitator), have been married for over twenty five years and they have two teenagers.
Learn more about why April started Care to Change in this interview on Care to Change’s podcast.