About Riverside Counseling
Meet Anna: Results-Orientated, Compassionate Therapist at Riverside Counseling
Supporting Your Whole Self
Let's Begin Your Journey
Anna Bankey, MSW, LGSW, LICSW Eligible
Owner-Mental Health Therapist at Riverside Counseling
Independent Contractor with Soul Work in Champlin
Currently approved to sit for the LICSW examination
Therapy and counseling aren't about “fixing” people. It is about helping people reconnect with the parts of themselves that stress, trauma, survival, loss, and life experiences may have buried over time.
At Riverside Counseling, therapy is all about you — your story, your healing, your growth, and your ability to reconnect with your authentic self. I can’t promise therapy will feel easy or hard. What I can say is that meaningful therapy creates space for real change, self-awareness, healing, and growth. It helps you keep moving forward in life while staying true to who you are — because your life matters. While you are the expert on your own life, I am here to help you move toward a more authentic way of being and living. My clinical work is integrative and neuro/trauma-informed specialties including:
- EMDR & Brain Spotting: Cutting-edge tools for processing deep-seated trauma.
- Somatic & Nervous System Regulation: Body-based strategies to find calm and safety.
- CBT & Attachment-Focused Therapy: Healing the way you relate to yourself and others.
Professional Highlights:
- Education: Master's in Clinical Social Work from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; BSW from The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN, AA from Central Lakes College, Brainerd, MN.
- Studies in marketing, business and anthropology at Iowa State & Des Moines Area Community College.
- Clinical Depth: Over 9,000 hours of clinical experience across diverse settings, including community mental health (in-patient and outpatient therapy), jail programs, and tribal health services.
- Specialized Training: Advanced trauma instruction from world-renowned experts in New York, Texas, and Italy.
My path to becoming a therapist was non-traditional. Long before earning my master’s in clinical social work, I spent decades immersed in the natural health, yoga, health and fitness, beauty, massage therapy, physical therapy, chiropractic, and bodywork industries.
This foundation in whole-person wellness allows me to understand stress and emotional regulation on a physical level, not just a cognitive one.
In counseling, I believe it is important to honor each person’s unique story, values, traditions, identities, and lived experiences. I strive to create a welcoming, nonjudgmental space where clients feel seen, respected, and empowered to explore healing in ways that align with their own beliefs and cultural backgrounds.
I recognize that family systems, ancestry, community, spirituality, and life experiences all play meaningful roles in emotional wellness and personal growth.
At Riverside, we explore the "whole person."
Together, we look at your nervous system, attachment patterns, and the vital connection between your mind and body. It's more than managing symptoms.
My life experiences combined with my work as a clinical social worker-therapist have shaped a deep respect for all peoples' personal beliefs, cultural identity, spirituality and the many experiences that influence how people see themselves and move through the world - as I am an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and also come from German, Norwegian, South American, and South Pacific ancestry. I work with people from all walks of life and backgrounds. I continue to learn every day from my clients as well.