Addison A. Wakeford, MSW, LCSW

I am a licensed clinical social worker. I received my BA in business from Southern Methodist University. I received my MSW in social work from Florida State University.  I have extensive experience working with children, adolescents, couples, and families.

I started off my career as a very successful businessman but experienced some personal issues, which in turn, lead to my pursuit of my masters at Florida State University.   After graduating from FSU, I started with Families First in and helped develop and implement Tennessee’s statewide welfare system. I achieved one of the highest success ratings moving clients out of welfare system and back into self sufficiency.

During that time, I became part of a regional mobile crisis team. I was coordinator for three counties and assisted clients who were at risk, assessed and determined the next level of care. I preformed risk assessment and was responsible for stabilization and transport to the next level of care.

After finishing up at Families First, I spent over four years at Lakeside Behavior Health Systems in Tennessee, a level IV psychiatric facility, working with high risk adolescents and their families. I worked with kids who were homicidal, suicidal, depressed, had addiction problems, and self injurious behaviors. Besides individual and family therapy, I also headed multiple groups and worked with families in depth to reintegrate adolescents back into family system. I developed treatment plans and provided parent education groups and developed discharge plans.

While working at the inpatient facility, there was great demand for aftercare. Therefore, I started my private practice. The demand for private therapy was too great so I left the inpatient facility and became lead program therapist at Day Break in Germantown, Tennessee, a day treatment facility for the next 2 ½ years. This allowed me to focus on my private practice. For over 2 years I also consulted with several CCA prisons and assisted with counseling and reform in the prison system. This is when I started doing public speaking, education, and seminars to address services for people with needs.

I speak at schools, prisons, churches, and other various seminars. Some of the topics including Bipolar, suicide prevention, self-harm, substance abuse, working with special needs children, family systems, mental illness and the effects of the family, marriage and infidelity, and many more topics. As I found I needed more individual time with my patients, I developed a more indepth treatment program that includes the entire family, and when possible, go into the home where everyone is most comfortable and willing to share more.

Please call me for more information and to schedule appointments.

Addison A. Wakeford, MSW,LCSW
850-238-2422
Email:  AAWakeford@yahoo.com