Meet Our Counselors


Vickie Heck, MAC, LPCC-S, CDCA, Court Mediator – Director

About Vickie

Vickie (pronouns: she/her/hers) is a licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with Supervision Designation. She has a strong background of 20 + years in diagnosis, testing and treatment of mental health and behavioral issues across the lifespan for individuals presenting with a wide range of mental health and wellness issues.

Past locations of practice include private, community mental health, higher education and public K-12 education systems. She has experience with law regarding the rights of individuals as it relates to mediation in the courts concerning a multitude of issues.

She is a member of the Crisis Intervention Team in Northwest Ohio. Her background includes teaching at the collegiate level for 14 years in psychology, counseling and criminal justice courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Vickie provides an individualized and collaborative approach to counseling with a base in CBT, DBT, ACT, and client-centered therapies.  She strives to take the necessary time to build a strong therapeutic relationship with each student/client. She has extensive time and experience working with college students, which provides an understanding of life transitions being made.

Her goal and hope is to guide and support you through issues you may have while becoming your best self.

Austin J. Penler, LPC

About Austin

Austin J. Penler is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). He has found success in working with clients with a wide variety of different mental health concerns.

Austin attributes a lot of his counseling style to using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) techniques.

Alongside these treatment modalities, he likes to focus on a client-centered treatment style fostering a safe and caring environment away from judgment.

Austin is a graduate of Bowling Green State University where he spent his undergraduate years completing a thesis on childhood neglect leading to delinquency.

He worked for 5 years in a correctional setting where he worked with juvenile felons to try and help reduce the recidivism rate by providing them guidance and group-based therapies to try and change their maladaptive cycle of thoughts, feeling and actions.