Aja Cann, LCSW, LCAS, was born in Columbia, SC, and has spent most of her life in southeastern North Carolina and the triangle area. She received her BA in psychology and her master’s of social work (MSW) from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Before pursuing her graduate degree, she worked with adolescents and children in a shelter for homeless youth and those in the custody of the state. In her master’s program, she received intensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Brief Solution Focused Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing.
During her MSW program, she interned at Kids Making It— a small nonprofit in Wilmington, NC—and also at Brynn Marr Hospital in Jacksonville, NC, on the adolescent acute and long-term inpatient units, completing assessments, groups, and individual sessions.
After receiving her MSW, Aja began working with a wide variety of patients in the mental health setting. She has experience completing clinical assessments, diagnosing, and treating children, adults, and teens in the outpatient setting. In her work both as a Community Support Team Lead (CST) and an Intensive In Home Team Lead (IIH), she supervised and guided interventions for patients at-risk of inpatient hospitalization/placement. In CST, she often worked with patients struggling with significant mental health and addiction issues. In 2011, Aja began pursuing her Clinical Addictions Specialist license, after seeing the often co-occurring nature of mental health and addiction issues present in her patients. As an IIH Team Lead, Aja worked intensively with children, teens, and their families to develop effective coping strategies to address their children’s emotional and behavioral challenges.
Much of her recent work has been with adults with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. She has post-graduate training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and has completed DBT training with Behavioral Tech, LLC. In clinical practice, Aja most often utilizes DBT, CBT, Motivational Interviewing, and Solution Focused Therapy. She has special interest in working with women who have experienced trauma. She also enjoys assisting patients in addressing anxiety, bipolar disorder, addiction, and relapse prevention. She enjoys working with parents to address attachment relationships and enhance parenting skills.
