About
Carina Barker, MSW, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and educator with more than two decades of experience in community mental health, trauma-informed practice and professional development. She is the founder of Encouragement Clinic, an outpatient mental health practice in Superior, Wisconsin, where she provides psychotherapy, clinical supervision and consultation grounded in strengths-based, culturally responsive, and relational approaches. Additionally, Carina has specific training in working with maternal mental health and women’s mental health.
Carina has served as an instructor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where she taught graduate-level social work courses with a focus on trauma-focused interventions, reflective practice and professional documentation. Her teaching is informed by advanced training in maternal mental health, clinical supervision and evidence-based pedagogy, as well as her commitment to equity, inclusion and community-engaged learning.
She is currently completing her Doctor of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where her scholarship centers on trauma-informed education, clinician resilience and the development of emerging social work professionals. Carina brings extensive experience in program development, interdisciplinary collaboration and the use of national datasets to inform practice and curriculum design.
Carina brings evidenced based practice interventions and everyday clinical experience into the classroom. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and is excited to be a part of bringing an MSW program to the campus.
Education
- 2000 – Master of Social Work (M.S.W.), University of Minnesota-Duluth
- 1997 – Bachelor of Science (B.S.) – Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Superior