Kirstina Quast, LICSW

Kirstina Quast is a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) in Minnesota who helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, parenting challenges, mood disorders, and aging and geriatric issues. She brings practical problem solving to sessions and focuses on what will help someone move forward. Kirstina emphasizes collaboration and respects that each person knows their life best.

She has about nine years of experience in psychotherapy and a background across adult and children’s mental health, residential treatment, child welfare, and adoption and foster care services. That mix of work informs how she approaches complex family and caregiving situations. Kirstina often supports people dealing with grief, life transitions, caregiver stress, and adoption-related concerns.

Her approach is flexible and tailored. She uses attachment-based work to look at relationship patterns, client-centered techniques to follow each person’s lead, and cognitive behavioral methods for shifting thoughts and behaviors. She also uses narrative approaches and EMDR as part of trauma care when appropriate.

Kirstina aims for short, clear goals and creative strategies people can use between sessions. She describes herself as an outside-the-box thinker who looks for practical steps rather than long lists of theory. Her practice emphasizes respect, steady support, and concrete ways to cope with change and loss.

Starting therapy with Kirstina begins with a simple matching process and scheduling. She approaches each person with curiosity and a focus on workable change over time.

How Kirstina’s approaches translate to online work

Attachment-based work looks at patterns in relationships and helps people understand how those patterns affect their stress and caregiving roles. It can be useful for family of origin issues, attachment concerns, and caregiver stress.

Client-centered therapy focuses on following the person’s priorities and offering supportive reflection so clients can find their own answers. It is often paired with practical goal-setting for life changes and grief work.

The therapist will work together with each person to decide which approach or combination fits best. That decision is collaborative and depends on the client’s goals, the issues they bring, and what feels most useful in sessions.

If you are considering online therapy, confirm the current session options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when schedules are tight. It can also make it simpler for a caregiver to attend during a break or for someone dealing with mobility or transportation limits to connect with a licensed professional from their usual routine.

Discussing goals and preferences during the first appointment helps shape whether attachment-focused, client-centered, or CBT-based techniques will be emphasized in remote sessions.