Ashley Lierow (she/her) is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) who joined the Optimae Behavioral Health team in September 2025. Ashley has been with Optimae since May 2020. Her past roles include residential direct support professional, residential team lead, residential service coordinator, and intensive residential service home (IRSH) house manager.
While working as a residential service coordinator, Ashley dedicated herself to completing her coursework for her master’s degree. The experience of performing the service coordinator role alongside her studies gave her a deeper understanding of evidence-based practices, mental health diagnoses and how to support individuals within this population.
Ashley is experienced in serving individuals with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, substance use disorder and borderline personality disorder (BPD). She believes that healing happens in a space where you feel seen, heard and empowered. She strives to create an environment for therapy that is warm, collaborative and grounded in evidence-based practices.
Ashley is a therapist who affirms and celebrates LGBTQ+ identities. As a Queer-identifying therapist, she brings lived experience to her practice and recognizes that LGBTQ+ lives are rich with complexity, not solely defined by hardship. She views authenticity, self-acceptance, and community as powerful sources of resilience and growth, and works to nurture these qualities in the therapeutic space. Beginning in August 2024, Ashley has served on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Inclusion Influencers team. She has also been a panelist on two Pride panels with Optimae.
Ashley attended Grand View University where she graduated with a bachelor’s in social work and in psychology and a master’s in social work.