Rodney Valandra

Degrees and Credentials

M.A. Community Counseling, Xavier University, 2004

B.S. Human Services, Northern Kentucky University, 2001

Short Bio

Rodney has nearly 20 years’ experience counseling and providing mental health care to adolescents, college students and young adults. Throughout his career, he has focused on caring for the whole person.

A National Board Certified Counselor, he is an experienced program director/coordinator, clinical counselor and educator who has helped people deal with myriad issues.

Since 2004, he has operated his own private practice, providing therapeutic mental health and substance abuse counseling and life coaching to adolescents, college students and young adults. He also has contracted with high schools to provide services to students and their families, including virtual counseling services, and collaborated with community organizations and treatment centers to provide education, intervention, treatment, and aftercare to families and individuals.

He also has experience working in higher education, both as a program director and field coordinator and a faculty member. 

For four years, he was the program director and field coordinator at Northern Kentucky University’s Department of Human Services and Addiction Studies, where he created a program that focused on both mental health and substance abuse issues.

Rodney also taught psychology and human services undergraduate and graduate courses at Northern Kentucky University and taught social sciences and business courses at Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College’s Olean campus.

He lives on the Seneca National of Indians Reservation in Salamanca, N.Y.

Research, Accomplishments, and Publications

Rodney has given several presentations on mental health and substance use disorders.

• “Native American Spirituality and the Treatment of Addiction and Mental Health in Native Peoples,” 2013 National American Counseling Association Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• “Spirituality and Recovery,” 2014 NCAD National Conference, St. Louis, Mo.
• “Foundations of Posttraumatic Stress in Veterans,” 2016,Think Tank, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Ky.
• “Substance Abuse and the Traumatic Brain Injury Client” 2018, 12th Annual Brain Injury Conference, Erlanger, Ky.
• “Mental Health Issues and the Learning Student,” 2019, BOCES