Tonya has been married for 30 years and is the mother of twins. She is a member of Chapelgate Church and is the director of Keystone, the special needs ministry and 34:18, the mental health ministry.

At 11 years old, Tonya told her parents that she wanted to help “the kids that couldn’t do what the other kids did and were sad.” That desire never wavered. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Special Education. Her first job was teaching children who struggled socially and emotionally in a specialized treatment program. This experience taught her the necessity of addressing student’s therapeutic issues and not to focus solely on educational needs.

Tonya continued her education at Johns Hopkins, where she received her Masters in Counseling. She left the public school setting and began working as a resource teacher and counselor in Christian schools. As she supported children and teens during times of crisis, the Lord made it very clear to her that the only way she could be genuine as she walked alongside these hurting hearts was if she let Scripture be the filter of her counsel.

She then began work at Life Counseling Center as a counselor for children and teens and took classes at CCEF in order to better understand Biblical counseling. She has many years experience helping children, teens and their parents work through issues of divorce, death, adoption, disability, anxiety and depression. After taking some time off from counseling to serve in other support ministries, she is thrilled to be back with the LCC team, where she will be working primarily with elementary age children.

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