Empowered by education

For Jessica Pladsen '08, '12 MA-MFT, ’24 PhD-MFT, resilience, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to her Marriage and Family Therapy journey opened many doors for her career.

Jessica always found psychology to be the frontier for learning in her life and enjoyed the depth of understanding and innovation that followed.

Although she has studied both top-down and bottom-up processing as integration to create wholeness in therapy, she especially liked studying the top-down process of the brain (perception based upon prior experiences and knowledge), cognition, emotion, knowing how our bodies hold these pieces, and then, how to work through these elements therapeutically. This allows for the integration of these systems and processes to address the mind and body as a whole to support healing.

“I find us as human beings amazing. How could you not be in awe while sitting with someone resilient and trying to be in a healing space with them, and why wouldn’t you want to dedicate your life to that?"
–Jessica Pladsen '08, '12 MA-MFT, ’24 PhD-MFT

“I find us as human beings amazing,” Jessica said. “How could you not be in awe while sitting with someone resilient and trying to be in a healing space with them, and why wouldn’t you want to dedicate your life to that? There is always more to learn, so you could never get tired in this field.”

When looking into her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy (MA-MFT) degree and her undergraduate major in psychology and minor in sociology, Mount Mercy University felt like the ideal place for her to create connections and learn without distractions.

“Mount Mercy has allowed classes to be accessible while also allowing me to provide for my family,” Jessica said. “The staff and the professors helped me the most. Mount Mercy has connected me with so many wonderful people and has helped me feel supported in this community, so I’m very appreciative.”

Although the Hill is an hour drive from Jessica’s home, it was a no-brainer for her to choose to attend Mount Mercy for her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy (PhD-MFT) because of her connection with professors, comfortability with the location, and the opportunity to grow professionally.

“Because I started my own practice, the growth process of my PhD morphed into something different,” Jessica explained. “The PhD-MFT has become more substantiating academic achievement. It has also opened doors and aligned with my pursuit of professorship, which is needed to access higher learning and hopefully what will be legacy pieces.”

"The PhD-MFT has also opened doors and aligned with my pursuit of professorship, which is needed to access higher learning and hopefully what will be legacy pieces."
–Jessica Pladsen '08, '12 MA-MFT, ’24 PhD-MFT

Jessica is the founder of Prism Therapy Group, which she named after the object that helps you see things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to see, like access to resources around you. Because Jessica sees therapy as a tool like a prism, she named her business after it.

Her business provides a lot of autonomy for the therapists who work there and the ability to get input regardless of hierarchical positions. Having the opportunity to create this kind of atmosphere was a big push for Jessica to start her own business.

“As women in business, I think we get in a lot of binds, like taking care of ourselves but working hard and still being available, so I wanted to create a business with a different culture where those binds weren’t a part of it,” Jessica said. “Prism Therapy Group is a very collaborative space, so not only has it become a healing space for clients, but also a healing space for those who work here.”

Jessica is not only the founder, she is an AAMFT-approved supervisor, managing 14 therapists and is adding medication management to the practice. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, working a full caseload of 20 to 30 clients a week.

As part of her duties as a therapist, owner, and supervisor, she handles billing, receptionist work, and credentialing pieces, while also finding time to serve as a general board member on the Iowa Play Therapy Board and be an Adjunct Professor in the MFT program at Mount Mercy.

Jessica finds the academic aspect of being a professor to be energizing, and she loves having an impact at a systemic level. She also enjoys the idea of affecting her students the same way that her professors shaped her clinical approach and continue to impact her interactions with clients today.

“My students have been just brilliant, and it has been such an honor to work with them and share a space with them,” she said. “It was like I didn’t even know what I was missing until I had it. Being able to plant these little seeds and watch them grow as people and see their experience and learning fall into place has been such a beautiful space to occupy. I feel honored.”

Thanks to Jessica’s best friend and past professor, Heather Morgan-Sowada, she has learned how to balance her busy life with grace and maintain the separation between her multiple roles of being a student and a faculty member.

“My dearest friend and professor Heather Morgan-Sowada has helped me navigate different dual relationship roles between us as an ethical aspect in our profession, and she has done it very thoughtfully,” Jessica said.

While wearing many hats at her jobs and in the community, Jessica has been working on qualitative research for her dissertation for the PhD-MFT program. Because there isn’t a ton of research on MFTs and their designation style of what they do and how they do it, Jessica chose to focus her research on whether or not the MFT approach to therapy is that different than other designations like mental health counselors or social workers focusing on impact around borderline personality disorder.

Overall, Jessica says the people, relationships, and connections are what have stuck with her the most, and she believes the PhD-MFT program at Mount Mercy has been well worth her time and drive.

“The PhD-MFT program has been one of the most challenging things that I’ve ever come up against,” she said. “but it has also been one of the most fulfilling things.”