Ashley Plotnick, LCSW, MAJS, MEd
CCAR Special Advisor for Member Support and Counseling
Ashley Plotnick, LCSW, MAJS, MEd, is a licensed psychotherapist and trained spiritual director with extensive experience in the Jewish community. In addition to her robust private practice, she has been the Director of Congregational Learning at Makom Solel Lakeside in Highland Park, Illinois for ten years. Ashley completed training in spiritual direction through the Morei Derekh program and is a spiritual director for HUC-JIR rabbinical students, as well as a mentor for the Kol Dodi spiritual direction training program at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Ashley is completing a Doctor of Ministry degree in contemplative practice, spiritual renewal, and strategic leadership at Claremont School of Theology.
As a counselor, Ashley is relationship-centered and draws upon family systems theory in her work. Ashley believes that the therapeutic relationship must foster a sense of warmth, authenticity, and acceptance, enabling clients to bring their full selves to the process, creating deeper awareness and a more connected, lived experience. Ashley’s extensive training in mindfulness practice enables her to hold each person’s story with compassion and to meet them with presence.
Ashley holds master’s degrees in social work and human sexuality education from Widener University, as well as in Jewish studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She completed a grief support specialist certificate through the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021 and volunteered extensively for the COVID Grief Network. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three children.