Our Team

Tiffany George, LCSW

Tiffany George has been with FCS since she received her MSW in 2001. She became the Executive Director in January 2020 and Lead DUI Court Clinician in 2025. She enjoys working with community partners to ensure professional and affordable access to mental health and addiction treatment. Tiffany also provides leadership training and supervision to other nonprofit leaders and enjoys working with troubled work groups. As a counselor, she has worked in the area of domestic violence and child abuse for over 20 years providing counseling to victims as well as perpetrators. In her personal time she enjoys being in nature, reading, music, and supporting other nonprofits by volunteering or attending fundraising events with her family.

Executive Director

Lori Whitmire is a licensed clinical social worker with 19 years of direct practice experience. Following graduation from UGA’s MSW program in 2007, Lori worked in Walton, Rockdale and Newton counties providing in home therapeutic services to adults, children, and families. She joined FCS in 2012, where she has since worked as an individual therapist for adult clients, and as a supervisor for interns and staff. Her areas of specialty include anger management, anxiety, depression, work/life balance, and life cycle transitions. She also has experience working with childhood trauma and abuse.

In 2012, Lori completed an intensive 6 month supervised training program with CBT Counseling Centers of Asheville. She has also completed Levels 1 & 2 of EFT training with EFT Master Trainer, Ann Adams (emotional freedom technique- “tapping”), as well as trainings in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy.

Clinical Supervisor & Clinician

Lori Whitmire, LCSW

Johanna Hopkinson graduated from the University of Kentucky in December 2023 with her MSW and Certificate in Clinical, Substance Use, and Trauma Care. She first started with Family Counseling Service as an intern while earning her MSW. Her current outlook is influenced by her studies in religion and work as a visual artist (fun fact, she also has an MFA!), as an elementary and preschool teacher, and as an expressive arts facilitator at a substance use recovery center. She is kept sane by spending time with her child, reading, and being out of doors.

Johanna Hopkinson, LMSW

Lauren Osborne is an LCSW who began her direct practice experience in 2013. She joined FCS in 2014, and her areas of specialty include anger management, anxiety, depression, work/life balance, life cycle transitions, family of origin dynamics, and trauma. She also teaches as part-time faculty at UGA in the MSW program. Her therapeutic approach is largely humanistic: building a relationship with the client through unconditional positive regard, acknowledgement of autonomy, and empathic understanding. To paraphrase Carl Rogers, her question isn't how to cure, change, or treat a client. Her question is: how can I provide a relationship which this person may use for their own personal growth - one that fosters self awareness, self compassion, and interpersonal connection? Outside of work, she has participated in the local art and music scene and worked with local agencies to improve program development for the homeless and working poor, as well as children and families. Lauren enjoys spending time with her family, working on their old home, cooking international foods, and traveling.

Lauren Osborne, LCSW

Cynthia (Cyndi) White has worked with FCS since 1989. Using personality as a way of understanding self and others, Cyndi works with individuals, couples and families to co-create options outside of the box to increase clients’ choices of perception and response. She has 35 years of experience working alongside clients who are dealing with overwhelming life transitions, traumatic experiences, difficult relationships, distressful self-images and adult ADHD. Her daughter calls her a “heart doctor,” and even though she is not a doctor, she helps people’s hearts heal by creating a safe, therapeutic relationship with clients where they can speak their mind, experience understanding, learn new things, practice them and grow. Cyndi also serves parents of children (or adults) with autism or other developmental disorders as they navigate life and family relationships.

Cyndi White, LPC

Abigail Ryan received her Master of Social Work, with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, from the University of Georgia in 2025. She previously interned at Project Safe, Athens' local domestic violence shelter and awareness center, and here at Family Counseling Service. Her therapeutic framework is shaped by her background in music and her social work degrees, in particular the principles of client self-determination, unconditional positive regard, acceptance, and the importance of human relationships. Her areas of specialty include anxiety, OCD, sexual and domestic violence and trauma, and navigating life changes. Abigail works with all ages.

Abigail Ryan, LMSW

Carolina Butler earned her MSW from the University of Georgia, where she also completed her BA in Sociology and minor in Human Services. She works with kids, teens, and adults, and especially enjoys supporting clients navigating neurodivergence (primarily OCD, ADHD, and Autism), trauma and grief, behavioral challenges, and life transitions. By incorporating elements of play therapy, expressive arts, CBT, and DBT, she strives to make therapy accessible and meaningful for each client. Her therapeutic approach is collaborative, creative, and rooted in the belief that healing begins when we are met exactly where we are — without judgment and with space to imagine what's possible.

Outside of the therapy room, Carolina finds joy in making art, writing poetry, and hanging out with her two cats

Carolina Butler, MSW

Kara values the arts and creative mind in all forms, integrating those tenets into both their work and personal life. Professionally, they have spent years working primarily in suicide prevention as a client advocate and certified QPR Facilitator, as well as with survivors of sexual assault and child abuse. Kara holds an MSW from Winthrop University, an undergraduate degree in Human Services, and is pursuing LCSW licensure. In the therapeutic space, Kara emphasizes empowerment and the cultivation of connection with one’s body and internal sense of wisdom. They value collaboration with the client, not as an expert or authority, but as a mirror and guide to curiosity and self-compassion. Kara integrates a variety of cognitive modalities, but leans heavily on humanistic perspectives that prioritize the therapeutic relationship, innate client strengths, values-based decision making, and radical acceptance. Areas of specialty include challenges unique to the LGBTQIA+ community, working with chronic illness/chronic pain, trauma, depression, and challenges around life transitions. Kara works with adolescents and adults, including work with a variety of romantic relationship dynamics, whether monogamous or polyamorous.

Kara Johnson, LMSW

Tim Hinkle, LPC, CPCS

Tim Hinkle is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor (CPCS) with more than 35 years of counseling experience, including 32 years at Family Counseling Service. He specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy with adolescents and adults and works with individuals, couples, families, and groups. His work is influenced by Viktor Frankl, Steven Stosny, and John Gottman. When not at work, Tim enjoys spending time outdoors, reading, and listening to music.

Clinical Supervisor & Clinician

John Lee has been in practice for over 30 years as a licensed clinical social worker, all at FCS. As a practitioner of relationship therapy he helps clients address their relationships with self and others through a series of stratehic conversations. He works with adult individuals and couples who area addressing grief, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and anger issues. John's practice is influenced by James Hilman, Bob Dylan, and works by an array of Ch'an/Zen masters.

Originally from south Georgia, this US Army veteran and former school psychologist lives in Athens with his wife Linda.

John Lee, LCSW

John Helmly, LPC specializes in anger management/emotional intelligence. He works with individuals, couples and families, helping with a variety of issues, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, effective communication strategies and how to build healthy relationships. He is also honored to serve as the counselor for the Western Judicial Circuit Veterans Treatment Court. John’s approach to counseling draws from his 20-year career of working as a trainer and consultant for several major corporations, as well as his experience as an adult education instructor. He has a deep desire to see people reach their full potential and while he employs a full range of counseling strategies, the work of Carl Rogers and his Person-Centered Theory, combined with cognitive approaches and those derived from Polyvagal Theory, serve as a foundation for John’s practice.

John Helmly, LPC

Mike Musgrove (LCSW, CARES, MAT) moved to Athens in 1986 for graduate school and has lived in the area ever since. He has been practicing in the mental health field since 2016. After conducting scientific research for 25 years, Mike became a certified peer specialist in addictive disease (CARES) in 2015, graduated with an MSW from UGA in 2020, and obtained clinical licensure in 2024. He was certified in Medication Assisted Treatment in 2021. Mike has worked in outpatient programs for substance use disorder treatment at an inpatient crisis facility, and provided therapy and assessments in an outpatient clinic for a public mental health agency. Mike uses a client-centered, holistic, trauma-informed approach while offering cognitive behavior therapy, strengths-based therapy, motivational interviewing, brainspotting, neuroscience of recovery/wellness, and mindfulness practices. He has worked in collaboration with individuals and groups dealing with recovery, grief, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and LGBTQIA+ issues.

Mike shares a home in Oglethorpe county with two dogs and a cat. He enjoys working with non-profits (Boybutante AIDS Foundation, Madison-Oglethorpe Animal Shelter, and Walton Empowers), as well as reading, working out, spending time with family/friends, and making dad jokes.

Mike Musgrove, LCSW, CARES

Michael Dwyer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with extensive experience working with youth and families. Now working with adult individuals, groups, and couples, Michael applies strong conceptual skills to assist clients in different stages of life. Recovery, mood, grief, reactivity, and adjustment are a few topics he addresses with clients. Michael is familiar with recovery models and focuses on client relationship to drive treatment. Experience as Visual Artist, Musician, and Wilderness Behavior Counselor also informs his approach.

Michael Dwyer, LCSW

My strong belief, which I work hard to create, is that the relationship between the client and the therapist allows the work to be transformative. I work with older adolescent males and adult men and women whose chief complaints are drug and alcohol use, sex and porn compulsions, anxiety, depression, childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual assault, LGBTQIA+ concerns, and death, dying, grief, and loss.

My approach to therapy is centered around work that is transformative in helping individuals become self-aware of their patterns in how they listen, talk, think, and act. I have found that when awareness happens, a fundamental shift in how we navigate and experience the world occurs, along with personal freedom and power. It is the story you tell yourself that cultivates your reality. It is not what happened to you, it's your interpretation of what happened to you. It's not what someone said to you, it's your interpretation of what they said. All of that determines what's possible for you, and that determines your reality.