Jessica Palen, LSCSW

Jessica Palen, LSCSW is a licensed Clinical Social Worker through the State of Kansas providing therapy services in the Manhattan, Kansas area. She currently serves as the Director of Counseling and Social Services, overseeing the Adoption, Pregnancy Support Services, and Counseling Programs.

Jessica has experience providing individual, couples, and family therapy for those experiencing persistent mental health turmoil at Catholic Charities. She has extensive training in Solution-Focused Therapy. Jessica specializes in working with various mental health disorders including but not limited to: Major Depressive Disorder, Bi-Polar Disorder, Adjustment Disorder, Anxiety, Acute Stress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders, Attention and Attachment Disorders, and Bereavement. She has a passion for working with children/adolescents (8 years and older), teens, adults, and older adults experiencing emotional and behavioral challenges.

In addition to providing mental health services, Jessica is also a Pregnancy and Adoption Social Worker at Catholic Charities. She offers support to expecting mothers with the goal of carrying the pregnancy to full-term by offering counseling and case management, parenting and/or adoption plan guidance, and pregnancy item assistance. She also assists couples interested in adoption and helps the birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees to build lifelong open adoption relationships.

She studied Social Work at Kansas State University where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work. Following her undergraduate studies, she was accepted into the School of Social Work Advanced Program at the University of Kansas where she received her Master of Social Work degree with a Solution-Focused Therapy concentration in practice. Jessica has been a licensed social work professional in the state of Kansas since May 2011 and she is also a member of the National Association of Social Workers.