Jenny Ugalde, LCSW

Provides wellness visits

Jenny Ugalde is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with eight years of experience in crisis intervention and therapeutic services. Jenny is the daughter of Bolivian parents and grew up in Palatine, IL. She received a full-tuition scholarship to Washington University in St. Louis where she took courses specializing in violence against women and criminal justice responses to domestic and sexual violence. She attended the University of Texas at Austin for her master’s in social work and interned with the Austin Police Department’s Crisis Response Team—a mobile social services unit that responded to police calls with officers. While in graduate school, Jenny also worked as a research assistant for a study assessing the efficacy of a group intervention for veterans with PTSD and another study examining the feasibility of collecting biopsychosocial data with Hispanic teenagers. After graduating, Jenny returned to the Chicagoland area where she worked as a therapist in a domestic violence shelter and at an organization serving sexual assault survivors. Jenny has experience answering crisis hotlines, accompanying survivors of crimes to hospitals, and providing long-term therapy.

In 2018, Jenny developed Mundelein Police Department’s first social work program. For four years, she partnered with officers for on-scene response, collaborated with investigators to ease the process for victims of crime, provided follow-up services on police reports, and assisted victims with orders of protection and court advocacy. Jenny is thankful to continue to work with first responders by providing wellness checks with the FRWC.

Jenny has an easygoing, authentic, and warm therapeutic style. She is experienced in working with trauma, depression, anxiety, and life transitions. She is a firm believer that people already have many internal strengths and that every person is capable of growth and deserving of support. Jenny has immediate family in the fire service and is proud of her Hispanic heritage. She speaks Spanish fluently.