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Dan Maki, MA, LMFT

A therapist who takes the work, and you, seriously.

Years of clinical practice, grounded in a simple belief: genuine understanding leads to meaningful change.


Dan Maki, MA, LMFT — Enlight Counseling

Thoughtful by nature.
Direct by design.

I have been doing mental health work in one capacity or another since 1995. What has kept me in the field isn't the clinical framework per se... it's the consistent experience of watching people gain clarity about themselves and use that clarity to make meaningful changes.

In practice, I'm both warm and direct — sometimes in the same breath. Therapy tends to move better through honest exchange rather than careful neutrality. I believe clients are best served by a therapist who will share what they actually see, without judgment. The people who work with me appreciate both the honesty and the care behind it.

I founded Enlight Counseling to practice the way I believe therapy works most effectively: unhurried and grounded in a real relationship between two or more people trying to understand something together. That includes going where the work needs to go, not just where it's comfortable to stay.

AAMFT Clinical Fellow

This designation reflects completion of rigorous training standards for independent practice of marriage & family therapy, held to the highest ethical standards. Clinical Fellow Designees demonstrate specific education, clinical training, and supervision in systemic marriage & family therapy — recognized by state licensure boards and worldwide as the standard for MFT education and training.

AAMFT Clinical Fellow

How I think
about this work

My approach draws from several distinct traditions, but the common thread is the same in every case: developing a clear picture of what's driving someone's experience and addressing it, beneath the surface of presenting symptoms.

Over my time in the field, I have worked across a wide range of settings, from community mental health to corporate healthcare to nearly a decade developing and operating my own multi-clinician practice. I understand what it means to carry responsibility for outcomes — clinical, organizational, and personal — and that background shapes how I work with clients navigating high-stakes professional lives, leadership pressure, and the kind of stress that follows you home. Whatever comes into the room, I've very likely encountered something like it before.

Relational & Systemic

What's happening between people is often as important as what's happening inside them. I work with the relationships and patterns that shape experience, not just the symptoms they produce.

Humanistic & Existential

Meaning, identity, and how you choose to live are central to this work — not peripheral to it. I'm less interested in diagnosing what's wrong than in understanding what's true for you.

Brainspotting

A body-based approach for addressing trauma and other stuck emotions that reaches what words alone sometimes cannot. I've found this method particularly effective at helping clients resolve deeply rooted experiences in a gentle, self-paced way.    Learn more about Brainspotting →


People ready
to look deeper

I work with individuals, couples, and families. Some arrive with a specific named struggle. Others come in carrying something harder to put into words — a persistent sense of distance in a relationship, a life that looks right on paper but doesn't feel fully theirs, or a question about what they actually want that they haven't had room to ask.

In my years as a clinician, I've worked with a wide range of presenting concerns, often including things that are hard to name but impossible to ignore.

Anxiety
Depression
Grief
Trauma & PTSD
Life Transitions
Relationship Struggles
Divorce
Infidelity
Men's Issues
OCD
Dissociation
Self-Esteem
Codependency
LGBTQ+ Identity & Relationships
Spirituality
Religious Deconstruction
Career & Work Issues
Stress & Burnout

Training &
licensure

Degree

Master of Arts, Counseling Psychology

Bethel University, Saint Paul, MN — 2000

Certificate

Marriage & Family Therapy

Adler Graduate School, Minnetonka, MN — 2001

Minnesota License

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

#1183 — January 2006 to Present

Professional Designation

Clinical Fellow

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

Clinical Supervision

Board-Approved Supervisor

MN Board of Marriage & Family Therapy
MN Board of Behavioral Health & Therapy


The person behind
the practice

Most days in Duluth, I find my way to the water. I've spent more time on the shores of Lake Superior in the past few years than in the previous decade — collecting and polishing quartz and agates, watching the lake shift with the seasons, and letting the wind and waves soothe my soul. It's the kind of rhythm that keeps a person grounded.

Living in such a beautiful place, I've naturally taken up photography as a hobby. Northeastern Minnesota has its own particular appeal: boreal forest lush with spring growth, ancient rock, the cliffs and beaches along the North Shore. Landmarks as compelling as the landscape itself... there is a strong sense of place.

When I travel, I'm drawn to the desert Southwest and the Pacific Northwest for the similarities and contrasts. Arizona's Red Rock Country has something in common with the iron-stained hills of the Iron Range: different landscape, familiar feeling. The Pacific Northwest brings similar essential elements — forest, water, and rock — but the mountains there are still being built. Here, they've had a billion years to wear down. Different timeline, same feeling.

Ready to Begin?

The best way to know
if it's a fit is a conversation.

A consultation is the right place to start. We can talk about what's brought you to therapy, what you're hoping for, and whether we might be a good fit.

Currently accepting new clients.

218.514.4415