About Us
Meeting You Where You Are
We provide individual therapy, clinical education, and consultation grounded in extensive clinical training and real-world experience.
Our focus is on helping people better understand what they are experiencing and begin making meaningful, sustainable changes.
What We Believe
At Modern Mind Institute, our work is rooted in core values that guide everything we do:
Dignity. Every person deserves thoughtful, respectful care. We believe every individual is inherently worthy of respect, compassion, and top-tier treatment—without exception.
Clarity. Therapy should adapt to the individual, not force people into a standardized model. We use trauma-informed, tailored strategies that meet you where you are.
Collaboration. Progress happens through structure, reflection, and a strong therapeutic relationship. Whether you’re an individual, clinician, or organization, growth happens in partnership.
Meet Your Team
Modern Mind Institute was founded in May 2025 by Dr. Stacy Kratz and Dr. Amber Ford to provide solution-focused, evidence-based support that helps clients navigate specific challenges and achieve meaningful life goals.
Co-Founder and Lead Clinician | Pronouns: She/Her
Stacy Kratz
Ph.D., LCSW, CAP
Co-Founder and Lead Clinician | Pronouns: She/Her
Amber Ford
Ed.D., LCSW
Meet Stacy Kratz
Stacy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Professor with over two decades of clinical expertise, bridging high-level research and compassionate, individualized care. She has received multiple awards for helping patients navigate life’s most difficult transitions and remains grounded in the belief that every individual possesses the capacity for profound meaningful change.
Areas of Expertise
Mood, Stress, Depression & Anxiety Management: Evidence-based treatment for anxiety, depression, and work-related stress using trauma-informed approaches. Stacy helps clients break cycles of emotional distress and builds psychological flexibility needed to reclaim a sense of self-control and purpose across the lifespan.
High-Performance Support: Tailored interventions for professionals in high-pressure environments. Stacy addresses the unique intersection of perfectionism and burnout, providing tools to dismantle imposter syndrome and establish healthy professional boundaries.Her work focuses on shifting the definition of success from “exhaustion” to “sustainability,” ensuring career growth never comes at the expense of mental health.
Trauma & Recovery Clinical Specialization: Targeted guidance reducing symptoms of PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) using a phase-oriented approach emphasizing safety, emotional regulation, and trauma processing. Key evidence-based approaches include TF-CBT, DBT, and ACT. Specializes in intergenerational trauma, sexual assault, domestic violence, and high-demand religious or spiritual abuse.
Expert in Addictions & Recovery: Certified Addictions Professional (CAP) and International Alcohol and Drug Counselor (IADC) offering recovery strategies for substance-related and behavioral addictive disorders. Stacy also focuses on therapy and strategies for family members and loved ones of those struggling with addiction.
Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan: Comprehensive perinatal care including preconception, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, grief and loss, abortion (including medically-necessary terminations), and parent-child bonding. Also specializes in perimenopause / menopause, addressing emotional, cognitive, and psychological changes from fluctuating hormones.
Additional Specializations: Athlete mental health pioneer (co-founder, Sport Social Work Journal), family business therapy for resolving interpersonal conflict and generational transfers, and organizational training for sustainable social responsibility initiatives and mental health training systems.
Education
- PhD, University of South Florida
- MSW, University of South Florida
- BSW, University of South Florida
- BA, University of Southern Illinois; L’Université de Haute Bretagne (elle parle français à un niveau intermédiaire)
Certifications
- Certified Addictions Professional (CAP)working with individuals and families
- International Alcohol and Drug Counselor (IADC): Certified through the International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC)
- Certified Social Work Supervisor-Clinical Supervision & Leadership, Professor, and External Field Liaison
- Specialty training and research in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution Focused Therapy, and Problem-Solving Therapy
Licensed states:
Meet Amber Ford
Amber Ford is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over two decades of experience serving adults and their loved ones across the lifespan. Drawing from a rich breadth of experience in medical social work, higher education, and private practice, she brings deep expertise to her collaborative approach. Her warm, non-judgmental style creates a brave space for clients to explore themselves and move forward with confidence. As a Mayo Clinic-trained Health & Wellness Coach, she integrates evidence-based approaches with comprehensive health strategies to support overall well-being.
Areas of Expertise
Life Transitions & Professional Challenges: Guidance through relationship changes, co-parenting, career shifts, and retirement. Clients clarify priorities, set realistic goals, and develop practical coping strategies for stress and identity shifts. Focuses on communication skills, boundary setting, and work-life harmony to empower resilience and purpose.
Chronic Illness & Medical Trauma: Support for navigating chronic illness, life-limiting conditions, and medical trauma. Therapy helps process emotional distress, develop coping strategies for symptom management, and empower clients to self-advocate and utilize available community resources. Addresses grief, adjustment challenges, and the psychological impact of medical experiences, fostering resilience and improving quality of life.
High-Achieving Humans: Targeted strategies addressing perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and burnout in demanding roles. Interventions focus on building self-compassion, setting healthy boundaries, and cultivating sustainable success without sacrificing well-being.
Caregiver Support: Trauma-informed support for family, friends, and professional caregivers managing chronic stress, compassion fatigue, and role overload. Focuses on establishing boundaries, enhancing self-compassion, and creating sustainable self-care routines. For professionals, addresses workplace burnout and vicarious trauma to maintain well-being while delivering high-quality care.
Grief & Loss: Compassionate, evidence-based therapy for anticipatory grief, death-related loss, and non-death losses. Helps clients safely process intense emotions, honor unique mourning rituals, and rebuild a sense of continuity and hope.
Relationship Abuse & Trauma Recovery: Collaborative treatment for complex PTSD, relationship abuse, religious trauma, and workplace toxicity. Therapy focuses on stabilizing the nervous system, processing fragmented memories, dismantling maladaptive beliefs, and rebuilding healthy relational patterns.
Education
- Ed.D. University of Southern California Rossier School of Education
- MSW, Eastern Washington University
- BSW, Azusa Pacific University
Certifications
- EMDR Basic Training, Trauma Therapist Institute
- Neurodivergent-Affirming Clinician
- National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach
- ASW Clinical Supervisor, California BBS
- Certified Grief Educator
Licensed states:
Why Choose MMI?
Clients tell us they feel understood in a way that feels clarifying, not just supportive. Work here tends to stay with people – in how they think, how they respond, and how they make decisions long after sessions end.
We are known for helping people make sense of patterns that have felt confusing or stuck for a long time, and for bringing language and structure to internal experiences that previously felt difficult to name.
Therapy with us is active and engaged. It is not passive reflection. It is a process of understanding what is happening, why it keeps happening, and how to shift it in a way that actually holds in daily life.
For many clients, this work is not meant to be indefinite. It is meant to be meaningful. Some return when needed, but often therapy ends when the work has done what it was meant to do: create clarity, stability, and change that lasts.