Behavioral Health – Lansing Area AIDS Network

Behavioral Health Services At LAAN

Serving Clients With Marginalized Identities

What is behavioral Health?

Often “behavioral health” and “mental health” are used interchangeably. Throughout every stage of our lives, our mental health affects handling stress, relating to others, making healthy choices, and our thinking, feeling, and acting. Our overall health and well-being are important to our mental health and this includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

Just like physical health, behavioral health has trained providers (also known as therapists) who can help you, much like a physical health care provider would. Therapy uses your skills and talents, and builds upon them to help you become better equipped to take care of yourself and others.

What does LAAN's Program Provide?

The Behavioral Health program at LAAN provides mental health services to the Greater Lansing community which includes 9 counties: Barry, Calhoun, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Shiawassee. Our services are available to LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, couples, and families, and to those who are HIV+ and their loved ones.

We offer short term and long term therapy along with skills building. Assessments and referrals to other local services are available for clients with more intensive needs that can’t be met in LAAN’s behavioral health services. At this time, neither psychiatric services nor prescribing medication are available at LAAN. However, we can refer clients to psychiatrists in the community to obtain behavioral health medication support, if appropriate.

We can provide out-patient therapy to clients with mild to-moderate mental health concerns, including:
•Depression
•Anxiety
•Grief and loss
•Exploration of sexual orientation, gender identity, and other identities
•Living with HIV and other chronic illnesses
•And more!

Meet The Team

Jennifer Schwartz (she/her or They/Them), LMSW

Behavioral Health Program Manager

Jennifer Schwartz (she/they) is a licensed clinical social worker and has worked as a therapist specializing in serving the LGBTQ community, PLWHA, and other marginalized communities since 2012.
Jennifer is an eclectic provider and utilizes evidence-based, trauma-informed therapy practices during her process of assessment and treatment. She draws on concepts and tools from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), somatic practices, attachment theory, various forms of play therapy and expressive art therapy, as well as feminist theory and antiracism.
Jennifer is currently training in Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) and plans to pursue certification to better serve her clients who are impacted by trauma.
Additionally, Jennifer is privileged to provide continuing education to other health and mental health professionals on a variety of topics including care coordination, social work supervision & ethics, and cultural considerations for providers serving the polyamorous, LGBTQ+, BDSM/Kink communities, as well as clients who are Fat/living in larger bodies, as those are the populations with which she specializes.
Jennifer received her MSW from University of Michigan, and her BSW from the University of Michigan-Flint, where she tailored her educational experiences toward sexual health education and sex therapy, as well as general mental health.

Samuel Rhoades (He/Him), LLMSW

Mental Health Therapist

I am an attachment-oriented and strengths-based therapist. What this means is that I believe we can better understand our experiences (thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) by having curiosity about our context including our relationships with other humans, and I believe we can use what we already know to build an effective way of coping with difficult situations. I work from an intersectional lens because equity is very important to me, and I believe all people deserve access to quality and evidence-based mental health care. I am fully committed to prioritizing people who may not have access to affirming, competent care, including LGBTQIA2S+ folks, BIPOC folks, people living with HIV, survivors of intimate partner violence, people exiting incarceration, first responders, and Servicemembers and Veterans of the armed forces. I am a Star Behavioral Health Providers listed clinician (SBHP registry), meaning I have completed multiple tiers of specialized trainings related to working with military-affiliated populations. I specialize in treating trauma and Moral Injury.
I have been working in human services for over 9 years, with over 8 years providing case management services to people living with HIV and one and a half years serving survivors of sexual and domestic violence. In 2022, I graduated from Michigan State University with my Master’s degree in Social Work, including a certificate from the Combat Veterans Certificate Program and additional coursework regarding the role of social work in health care settings. In 2023, I joined the LAAN Behavioral Health Program team as a therapist and have been providing individual and couples therapy in this role.
I have training and am working toward certification in the use of Emotionally Focused Therapy with both Individuals (EFIT) and Couples (EFCT). I have training in the use of CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia), with special focus on the use of this modality in work with the military-affiliated population.

Using Insurance For Services

LAAN is able to bill plans from several insurance companies for Behavioral Health Services. The buttons below will link to the online portal for each insurance provider, so that you can easily check your benefit information:

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Blue Cross Complete

*Medicaid

Meridian

*Medicaid – out of network only

Aetna

*Out of network only

Blue Care Network

Medicare

Optum (United Healthcare)

*Medicare, Medicaid, Commercial, Dual

McLaren

*Medicaid

Use this downloadable form to help you when contacting your insurance company to confirm your benefits. Be sure to save the information for your reference when starting therapy.