Dr. Erin Gustin, MA, PsyD, LP

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Erin Gustin is a licensed clinical psychologist who received her Master's degree and Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University in Louisville, KY. She specialized in Child, Adolescent, and Family Therapy with an emphasis on chemical dependency and addiction. She started her career in psychology working in a group home with adults with severe mental illness. Then, she moved into a community based setting and worked in a crisis stabilization center for children and provided therapy for families and children ​in crisis. Later in her career, she worked as an in-home therapist with children ages 4-18, providing individual therapy, play therapy, art therapy, and sand play therapy to this population. She also has experience working with court-ordered clients and worked at a college counseling center and can provide assistance with college transitional issues. 

After receiving her doctorate in clinical psychology, Dr. Gustin began working at the Hazelden Foundation with teenagers, young adults, and adults with addiction, chemical abuse and dependency, and co-occurring disorders or dual diagnosis. Hazelden Foundation is a world-renowned chemical dependency treatment center, and while at Hazelden, she worked with clients with depression, anxiety, personality disorders, ADHD, PTSD, eating disorders, process and behavioral addictions, gambling addictions, sexual addictions, chronic pain, trauma, abuse and neglect issues, grief and loss issues, and self-harm issues. After opening Pau Hana Counseling on the Big Island of Hawaii, Dr. Gustin became interested in treating trauma and became trained in EMDR therapy. She has a passion for working with couples and is trained in several methods of couples counseling. She is currently active in the Big Island Sand Play community and has specialized training in art therapy, sand tray therapy, and play therapy.

Jennifer L. De Costa, PhD, MFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Dr. Jennifer De Costa is a licensed marriage and family therapist who received a Master’s degree in Psychology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. She also received a Master’s degree from the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. Her training included an internship at their Center for Family Therapy. She completed her doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies with an emphasis in Family Intervention from Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. She started her career as a volunteer family therapist at a community-based clinic in Eugene, OR. Upon her return to the Big Island, she worked at an addiction’s treatment center with a focus on addictions, recovery, and violence prevention and intervention. She also provided home-based clinical support for a not-for-profit agency. Later she worked at a Federally Qualified Health Center and local hospital before transitioning to Pau Hana Counseling.

After receiving her doctorate, she moved to the Big Island to continue serving adults, children, and families. Dr. De Costa utilizes a strength-based approach, along with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Solution Focused Therapy. A collaborative partnership is an important foundation in treatment. 

Hannah Hancock, MSW, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Hannah Hancock, MSW, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who received her Master’s degree from Walla Walla University. Hannah has specialized in child, adolescent, and family mental health, with an emphasis on severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation. She began working in the mental health field at a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in Billings, Montana. Hannah continued to work at the Treatment Facility while completing graduate school and working full-time in school-based mental health as a Behavior Specialist. Upon graduation, Hannah moved to Asheville, North Carolina to work as a full-time in-home therapist, providing the highest level of community-based care available.

After several years, Hannah moved to the Hilo area to continue serving children, families, and individuals as they pursue healing, growth, and overall progress in their lives.

Hannah utilizes a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach that focuses on the whole person and the ecological system in which they live. Hannah most frequently uses approaches from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, and the Collaborative Problem Solving method. 

Joan Krakowiak, MSW, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Joan Krakowiak, MSW, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of Hawaii. She holds a Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She has been providing counseling and therapy services in a variety of settings since 1993. She specializes in eating disorders, women's issues, and relationships. Additionally, Joan has experience and training in the treatment of unresolved trauma issues, grief and loss, depression, anxiety, and addiction. She has also worked with people suffering from chronic pain and/or debilitating illness such as diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. She has experience and training as a Geriatric Mental Health Specialist.

Joan's primary theoretical orientation is "person in environment" or systems theory. It is a client-centered approach that utilizes a bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective or holistic approach to explore and transform problematic behaviors, unresolved issues and challenging life transitions. Joan considers the therapeutic relationship as being a partnership she develops with her clients. Her approach to therapy includes the use of cognitive behavioral, psycho-dynamic, existential, and action-oriented therapeutic methods. She uses an eclectic approach with various modalities to choose from to fit each individuals' model of reality, level of awareness, wants and needs. She provides counseling and therapy services for individuals, couples, families and groups.

Rosey Strong, MA, LMHC

Licensed Mental Health Counselor

Rosey Strong, MA, LMHC has extensive experience working with youth and caregivers. She is very  knowledgeable of the foster care system and CWS involvement, and works collaboratively with families at risk or already involved in the system. She was previously a foster parent and understands first-hand what it takes to thrive during hard times! She believes that behavioral issues and negative emotions stem from unhealthy patterns from the past, and she can help you and/or your youth to heal and grow out of negative experiences. She specializes in children and adolescents, as well as adults. She uses movement, art, play, and other expressive therapies, and in this way, she is able to work with even the very young. Traditional talk-therapy techniques are also utilized with adults and adolescents. Everyone is unique and specialized treatment is necessary! She strives to accommodate what works for each individual or family as a unit. She also offers free Powerpoint trainings and access to other resources. 

Jody Dunlap, MSW, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Jody Dunlap, MSW, LCSW has been a practicing social worker for over 40 years. Her personal and professional belief is how well people function is about how they process their life events.Through resiliency, the healthy tools they have learned or will learn and the belief in oneself, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance can emerge. As a result, she believes that people can learn to be their better selves. Jody believes that for healing and change to begin, it's important to identify what's working in their lives, what they are proud of and like about themselves. She also believe it's important to identify what tools have worked in the past when there have been struggles. Jody believes that people seeing their strengths and capabilities is critical in the beginning stages of therapy. 

Jody practices from a psychodynamic approach and tries to assist people in understanding and gaining personal insight about events from past/present that have shaped their lives. This often opens the door to self-understanding and shuts the door on self-judgement. She has experience working with many presentations of mental health issues. Some examples include, depression, bipolardisorders, anxiety related disorders, grief, including pet loss, and past or present trauma. She has also worked with people who have experienced physical, emotional, psychological trauma in a family setting. She enjoys working with both men and women struggling with anger problems and relationship problems. She works most ages of people,  from teens through seniors, as individuals, couples, families or in group settings. She also believes that humor can sometimes be good ‘medicine’ for therapy.

Syntha Lorenz, MA, LMFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist 

Syntha Lorenz is a Jungian-oriented, Feminist psychotherapist with an Object-Relations base. She believes in the power of therapy and its ability to heal wounds. She uses the term Shaman with a great deal of respect and consideration. She has worked with non-traditional healers for over 25 years using alternative healing techniques such as shamanistic journey, dreams, ritual, body awareness, guided imagery, art, authentic movement, and healing touch. She is aware that cultural misappropriation of terms is a further insult to Native cultures. I use the term with the utmost respect and intent of the indigenous teaching/healing modalities it implies. She has experience and training in both worlds, traditional and non-traditional and has dived deep into the psyche to explore buried material and found the gold in the cast off parts by working through unresolved feelings associated with those memories using both ways. She believes that this is where Jungian psychology and Shamanism meet in the Mystery.