Lynnette’s House

Lynnette Jung-Springberg: Our Inspiration for Lynnette’s House

Lynnette Jung-Springberg, 75, of Fort Collins, Colorado had a Cerebral Vascular Accident on December 21, 2015 and died December 29th at Pathways Hospice at McKee Medical Center.

Born August 7, 1940 in Billings, Montana, Lynnette was the daughter of Lucille and Joseph Jung. She grew up in Glasgow, MT. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology from St. Catherine College (now University) in St. Paul, MN and later her MSW from University of Utah. While serving 21 years in the U.S. Air Force, she worked as a Clinical Social Worker and Department Chair of Social Work at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, TX.  It was there she developed the first family therapy program for the Air Force, a huge accomplishment at the time.

After completing overseas assignments at Osan Air Base, Korea and Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, Lynnette married fellow Air Force officer, Dr. Peter D. Springberg while assigned to the Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX.

Lynnette retired from the Air Force in 1996 as a Lt. Colonel, and following her husband’s retirement, they moved to Fort Collins in 1999 (it was her turn to pick). Here, she continued to see mental health patients up until shortly before her death. Having received advanced training in group psychotherapy, Masters & Johnson Sex Therapy and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), she worked with victims of sexual abuse as well as veterans and others with PTSD in a pro bono capacity.

Lynnette had a passion for volunteering and helping others.

Lynnette loved doing therapy and could have easily launched a private practice but chose to help ChildSafe Colorado by volunteering. Naturally we jumped at the chance to have a skilled, experienced therapist join our team as a volunteer. She served ChildSafe for almost eleven years.

She was a wonderful therapist and co-facilitated adolescent girls in group therapy. Group therapy with adolescent girls can get pretty intense from time to time, but she never lost her cool or her sense of humor. Girls in this age range are trying to learn how to become stronger and more independent, yet, in a group therapy setting, they need support and direction and are usually not happy about it. Lynnette always spoke with knowledge and kindness to these young women – with understanding and encouragement.  She used her years of experience to help them understand that what they were feeling and reacting to was normal in response to the traumas they had experienced in their young lives.  With kindness, she would help them direct their feelings in useful ways to figure out who they really were and where they wanted to take their lives.

Lynnette initiated a project with her group to share their feelings to a juvenile judge about the court’s handling of both the perpetrator of their crimes and of the possible punishments for ‘wayward’ adolescents in her courtroom. She guided their composition of an invitation to the judge to join one of their group sessions. To their amazement, the judge accepted the invitation to join them in order to understand what it was like to be a victim of a sexual crime. Their experiences helped her to identify appropriate next steps when she had an adolescent in her courtroom rather than punishment.  As a result, the judge chose to sentence adolescents to alternative courses of action like attending after-school yoga classes.

Adolescent girls in Lynnette’s groups would have the support, freedom and comfort to do their very difficult work in a loving and empowered environment. Many would observe that coming to group each week was like coming to Lynnette’s home.

To this day, her calm demeanor and great, sharp wit are missed. Lynnette was insightful, caring, acutely aware of current issues and endlessly creative. She was a pleasure to work with, always. We remember her with great respect and fondness.

And, because of her example for those many years, our large group room will be memorialized as Lynnette’s House where we all aspire to be like Lynnette.