Brenda Rodstrom

Brenda Rodstrom brings to her work the sensitivity and psychological insight of a trained therapist combined with the practical capabilities of a business consultant, trainer, and coach.

Brenda holds an MSW from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Industrial Communications from Emerson College in Boston. She completed her internship at the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health in New York City, and she has done extensive research on the long-term impact of divorce on children and adults.

Prior to becoming a therapist, Brenda was founder and president of The Rodstrom Group, a management consulting firm whose clients included Merrill Lynch, Prudential Bache, Goldman Sachs, and National Financial Services Corporation. She also served as a Management Training and Development Specialist for Merrill Lynch, and held positions at Lord & Taylor, Dean Witter Reynolds, and Home Life Insurance Company.

Brenda has counseled and trained over 5,000 people, and her work has benefited the lives of countless adults and children in stepfamilies and divorced families. She is co-director of the Manhattan chapter of the Stepfamily Association of America and is a Certified Stepfamily Counselor and Coach by the Stepfamily Foundation.

For seven years Brenda served as a program director for Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, where she also conducted stepfamily workshops. Her articles have appeared in Big Apple Parent, and she has represented children in the New York court system as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. She also served as chairman of the board of Daytop Village Drug Rehabilitation Center.

A stepmother for 17 years, Brenda is passionate in her desire to help stepfamilies and single parents. “I do this work with every fiber of my being,” she says. “There is such a great need for it.”