Stephanie Sternes
LMFT, LCPC, NCC
Two-Home Family Systems Specialist
Idaho LMFT & LCPC Clinical Supervisor
Counselor Educator | Author | Professional Trainer
NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7886
Emmett, Idaho
StephSternes.com
Specialties
- Two-home family systems
- Divorce, separation, and post-separation family systems
- Co-parenting, parallel parenting, and high-conflict systems
- Stepfamilies and non-biological family relationships
- Foster care, adoption, and kinship systems
- Children and adolescents growing across two homes
- Attachment, attunement, grief, loss, loyalty, and belonging
- Couples and family relationships
- Infant and early-childhood mental health
- Emotional regulation and co-regulation
- Trauma-informed care and Brainspotting
- Clinical ethics, countertransference, referral, and scope of practice
- Counselor education, clinical supervision, consultation, and professional training
Biography
IStephanie “Steph” Sternes, LMFT, LCPC, NCC, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical professional counselor, National Certified Counselor, Idaho LMFT and LCPC clinical supervisor, counselor educator, author, and professional trainer specializing in two-home family systems.
Her work focuses on children and families navigating divorce, separation, co-parenting, parallel parenting, stepfamily development, conflict across households, foster and adoptive family systems, attachment, belonging, and the developmental experience of children growing across more than one home.
Steph is an adjunct counselor educator at Northwest Nazarene University, where she teaches graduate counseling content including Advanced Family Systems, divorce, stepfamilies, adoption, foster care, career counseling, student process groups, and rural mental-health practice. She is also an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7886, and develops professional training, clinical supervision, consultation, and continuing education for counselors and other family-serving professionals. Her current CV confirms these teaching, supervisory, and continuing-education roles.
For approximately a decade, Steph’s work with stepfamilies has been shaped by advanced training and ongoing mentorship with internationally recognized stepfamily expert Dr. Patricia L. Papernow. Her work integrates established family-systems, developmental, attachment, stepfamily, co-parenting, and post-separation research with practice-based Two-Home Clinical Frameworks developed through clinical work, teaching, supervision, and consultation.
Steph is the founder of Healing Story Ranch, a professional training center on a working elk ranch in Emmett, Idaho. The Ranch provides continuing education, counselor intensives, clinical consultation, group training, supervision, and advanced education in complex family systems.
She is also the creator of Two Homes, One Family™: The Adventures of Isabel “Izzy” Wren, a developmentally sequenced children’s series following one child from early childhood through adolescence across two homes. The children’s work is connected to parent, caregiver, educator, and professional resources designed to help adults better understand what children may be carrying inside complex family systems.
Her developing professional work, Understanding Two-Home Family Systems, brings together individual, family-systems, stepfamily-developmental, and Two-Home Systems perspectives to help professionals see beyond the presenting symptom or single household and better understand the larger relational system surrounding the person they serve.
Steph writes and teaches from both professional experience and lived stepfamily experience. At the center of her work is a simple belief: children should not have to sacrifice connection in order to belong.
Professional Experience
Current
Author & Series Creator
Two Homes, One Family™: The Adventures of Isabel “Izzy” Wren
Creator of Two Homes, One Family™: The Adventures of Isabel “Izzy” Wren, a developmentally sequenced 25-book children’s series following one child from early childhood through adolescence as she grows across two homes.
Each children’s book is designed as part of a larger support system that may include a Parent & Caregiver Workbook, Book Key parent/caregiver guide, and connected educational resources that translate the story’s developmental themes into practical language, reflection, activities, and support for the adults surrounding the child.
Develops professional resources for counselors, family-serving professionals, educators, clergy, mediators, parent coordinators, and others working with divorce, co-parenting, stepfamilies, and children across homes.
Author of the developing professional book:
Understanding Two-Home Family Systems
The Advocate of Peace Professional Guide to Divorce, Co-Parenting, Stepfamilies, and Children Across Homes
The professional work brings together individual, family-systems, stepfamily-developmental, and Two-Home Systems perspectives and introduces applied clinical frameworks developed through clinical practice, counselor education, supervision, consultation, and professional training.
Together, the children’s series, parent and caregiver resources, professional book, continuing education, and training curriculum form an integrated educational platform designed to help children, families, and professionals better understand life across interconnected homes.
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Current
Founder & Professional Training Director
Healing Story Ranch | Emmett, Idaho
Leads a professional training center offering continuing education, counselor intensives, consultation, clinical supervision, and family-systems education. Develops advanced training in two-home family systems, stepfamilies, co-parenting, parallel parenting, ethical complexity, countertransference, and higher-level-of-care decision-making.
2019–Present
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Clinical Director, LMFT, LCPC, NCC
Clarity Counseling Connections, Inc.
Provides counseling, clinical leadership, supervision, consultation, and professional development for interns and clinicians. Develops research-informed psychoeducation, parent resources, clinical frameworks, and community-based professional training.
2018–Present
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Adjunct Counselor Educator
Northwest Nazarene University
Teaches graduate counseling content including Career Counseling, Advanced Family Systems, divorce, stepfamilies, adoption, foster care, student process groups, and rural mental-health practice. Integration of developmental, relational, ethical, and contemporary family-systems perspectives into counselor preparation.
2018-Present
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Current
Clinical Supervisor, Consultant & Continuing Education Provider
Registered in Idaho to supervise both LMFT and LCPC pathways. Provides individual, triadic, and group supervision, clinical case consultation, and professional training.
NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7886.
Designs and delivers one-day continuing-education intensives, extended supervision and training cohorts, counseling-team training, and professional workshops.
Professional Writing & Clinical Frameworks
Steph develops professional articles, practitioner frameworks, clinical education, parent resources, counselor curriculum, and continuing-education training focused on two-home family systems, co-parenting, stepfamilies, attachment, belonging, child development, and complex relational systems.
Her current applied Two-Home Clinical Frameworks include:
- The Love–Loyalty Paradox
- Oppositional Co-Parenting: The Enemy Relationship
- False Symmetry in Two-Home Conflict
- The Reactive Mirror Effect
- The Two-Home Developmental Spiral
- Relational Role Mapping
The Sternes Co-Parenting Spectrum is an applied organizing tool incorporating established co-parenting forms while identifying Oppositional Co-Parenting as a distinct Sternes category. Your professional framework master makes this attribution distinction explicitly.
Her current professional writing also includes the Two-Home Gatekeeping Lens, an organizing application of established gatekeeping concepts within a broader Two-Home Systems assessment.
Education
Master of Science in Counseling — Marriage and Family
Northwest Nazarene University | 2016
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Magna Cum Laude
Walden University | 2013
Vocational Technical Teaching Studies / Career Guidance Counselor Education
University of Idaho | 2011
Psychology and Early Childhood Studies
Riverside City College | 1988
Licensure, Credentials & Recognition
- Idaho Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist — LMFT
- Idaho Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor — LCPC
- National Certified Counselor — NCC
- Idaho Registered Clinical Supervisor for LMFT and LCPC
- NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider — ACEP No. 7886
- Certified Brainspotting Therapist
- Northwest Nazarene University Counselor Education Department Supervisor of the Year, 2021
- Advanced training and ongoing mentorship with Dr. Patricia L. Papernow
Previous Professional Experience
LPC, LAMFT, NCC
Methodist Counseling Center | 2016–2019
Provided counseling services, helped develop a new clinical site, supported interns, expanded services, and delivered community psychoeducation.
Provided supervised counseling, supported office administration and program development, and contributed to community education.
Methodist Counseling Center | 2015–2016
Counseling Intern
Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist
Idaho Behavioral Health | 2013–2015
Provided individualized rehabilitation support addressing social, emotional, behavioral, educational, medical, family, and daily-living goals.
Ada County Court | 2012–2014
Small Claims Mediator, Fourth Judicial District
Facilitated communication between highly emotional parties, negotiated options and solutions, and prepared written agreements reflecting mutual understanding.
Emmett School District | 2008–2011
Secondary Education Teacher
Taught marketing, sales, career guidance, media literacy, and resilience. Developed school and community programs and coordinated online learning.
Earlier Leadership, Marketing & Finance Experience
Previous professional experience includes marketing and communications leadership, public relations, finance, real estate, loan processing, and underwriting.
Experience
Until 2012
Certified Secondary Teacher Emmett High School