Providing quality mental health services while shaping future providers

Growing up, Kayla Larkin swore she would never be a psychologist like her mother.

The St. Cloud State University alumna is now a licensed clinical counselor who owns her own private practice, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m passionate about helping individuals and families heal, grow and thrive,” she said. “Whether through counseling, teaching or leadership, I strive to create accessible, supportive environments where people can overcome challenges and reach their potential.”

When considering graduate school programs, Larkin enrolled at SCSU due to its Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACRAP) accreditation, which would allow her to be a licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC) in Minnesota and eventually be able to pursue independent licensure as a provider in the future. While in the clinical mental health counseling master’s program, Larkin appreciated that nearly every SCSU professor she had at the time was out in the community practicing and serving clients as well.

“I do believe that was a piece of why the education I received was so good; everything we were hearing was not only the educational side, but it was in real practice. ‘Here's what this looks like. Here's what we're doing.’ And I think that really makes a difference,” she said. “When you're looking at your education and knowing your faculty are doing the career you want to be doing, there's a lot of value to that. I think in the mental health world, we are drawn to the field because of our own struggles. I think that was another piece that was really important at SCSU, was we all had our advisors and part of that was them making sure we dealt with our own things throughout that program to really make sure we weren't carrying that into the field. We were dealing with our own things and getting healthy ourselves so that we could be better providers.”

Larkin earned her master’s from SCSU in 2018. Originally from Caledonia, Minnesota, she decided to stay in the St. Cloud area after meeting her now husband during her time at SCSU. After completing her master’s and licensing hours, Larkin joined her mother’s private practice — Families First Counseling Services — where her sister is the business manager. While Larkin’s mother started the practice in their hometown of Caledonia, Larkin opened another location in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. The practice has expanded, with multiple providers joining the practices in Caledonia and Sauk Rapids. Larkin bought the business from her mother in 2025 as her mother was looking to step back and partially retire.

“I continue her legacy by expanding access to mental health services,” Larkin said. “Our growth in Caledonia and Sauk Rapids supports healing and resilience in our communities.”

One of Larkin’s key objectives through her work is to help destigmatize mental health.

“I grew up in a very rural community where I think there was a strong stigma on mental health, but the reality was everyone still went to my mom for help. I think that always is my base for where I came from and clearly drew an interest in helping people and serving, being really invested in serving my community,” she said. “Part of my intent is I really want to serve my hometown community and now the community I'm living in and engaging in.”

In addition, Larkin looks to assist those living with chronic health conditions and the impact those conditions can have on mental health.

“In 2018, I started to get sick and I've spent the last several years dealing with severe chronic health conditions. I was diagnosed with MS several years ago, right as I was getting out of grad school, so I've navigated that world for the last eight years,” she said. “That's another area that has really drawn me to another population I serve, is people who have disabilities and ensuring they have access to high-quality care.”

It’s important to Larkin to not just provide quality care for her clients, but to advocate for them as well.

“What we've seen a lot in this field is there's a lot of people who want to help, but there's this limit on what you can do. A lot of people go to their appointments and then there's not this advocacy part after the fact. And so we do this: we approach this from a strong team approach where we're going to talk to the whole team involved,” she said. “If we're working with a family — we're working with the school, we're working with social workers. With my people who have chronic health conditions, I'm working with their case manager and their doctors, and we're doing this high level coordinated care. That's part of our value.”

Larkin is currently working on her doctorate in higher education administration at St. Cloud State, and is also an adjunct professor with her alma mater as well as Ridgewater College. She has enjoyed working with students in her field.

“I love working with the master's level students. It's really exciting to be part of shaping them to come into the field, knowing how valuable it was to me and my colleagues to have someone who's in the field, who knows it, but also is really good at the education side of it. ‘You need to know this, but here's the real world application of it,’” she said. “I think that's been really fun, and that's something I plan to continue to do. I don't know if I'll ever do that full-time, just because I'm running the practice, but I like being part of how we shape our students.”