John Hansen, MA, LP
John was born and raised in Minnesota, lived in St. Cloud as a youngster, graduated from Coon Rapids Senior
High School and then went to Macalester College in St. Paul. He majored in psychology with Walt Mink as his
adviser. He worked initially in a facility for the developmentally delayed until taking a position as a
Psychiatric Assistant at Abbott-NW Hospital on the in-patient adolescent unit.
He later worked in Rule 36 facilities for seriously and persistently mentally ill adults, such as the Oasis
Program. He was admitted to the graduate program in Clinical Psychology at Mankato State University where he
did his thesis in geriatric behavior problem assessment with the research group of Michael Fatis. Following
completion of his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology, he worked in the HealthEast Adolescent Behavioral
Health Program, performing crisis assessments, intakes for admissions, and milieu management. He accepted a
position as Mental Health Therapist at Community Foundations (then New Foundations), a Rule 36 program, where
he obtained supervision for licensure as a Psychologist, becoming a Licensed Psychologist in 1997.
He became Program Director of Community Foundations in 1999. He served as a member of the Board of Directors
of the MN Association of Mental Health Residential Facilities. At Community Foundations, he specialized in
working with severely and persistently mentally ill adults with problem behaviors posing particular challenges
for their successful recovery in the community. Challenges included addressing the needs of clients with
substance abuse, with high risk of violence, self harm or sex offense. He facilitated the application of
Dialectical Behavior Therapy to the residential treatment setting in order to assist those with high chronic
suicide risk. He did the DBT Intensive Training in 2006. He facilitated a relapse prevention group for mentally
ill sex offenders, and contributed to the application of modern actuarial assessment of sex offense risk, like
the Abel assessment.
John participated in the Ramsey County Police-Mental Health Roundtable. As the MN Dept. of Human Services worked
to transform Rule 36 residential programs into Intensive Residential Treatment Services, he was active implementing
evidence-based practices such as Illness Management and Recovery and Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment. He was
involved in the DHS Evidence Based Practices Stakeholders group. John participated in the South Metro Human
Services Training Institute, providing training in suicide risk management, IDDT, and assessment of violence
and sex offense risk. Upon entering private practice in 2009, he provides therapy using cognitive behavior
therapies, including DBT, IMR and IDDT.