Behavioral Health Therapist

• Feb 2023 - Present

In this role, I deliver trauma-informed care to teens in a partial hospitalization (PHP) setting in the form of therapeutic groups. Because the program runs in three week intervals, I personally created a PHP curriculum to ensure consistency in my delivery and continuity with my fellow therapists. Each week has a specific theme and activities to coincide. My therapy groups consist of a number of activities centered around mindfulness, understanding and regulating emotions, and interpersonal effectiveness. Stemming from a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) foundation, the activities include therapeutic game days, art therapy activities, and topic-specific learning activities such as fostering self-esteem and managing stress. I take a person-centered approach in my delivery as I found that meeting teens where they are is key to their success in treatment. Depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation is hard for anyone, especially a still developing teen. All of our teens struggle with suicidality to some degree and some with self-injurious behaviors. Therefore, I weave in self-care in fun ways and stress the importance of taking care of oneself. I know these kiddos are not my own. I know that at the end of the day they will go back to their environment that for some is their kryptonite. However, for the short time I have them, I make sure to try and get them to acknowledge their worth and maybe even spark the joy to walk in it! THAT is what I really do in this role.By the way, I am still the intensive outpatient (IOP) parent clinician. I teach DBT to parents and hopefully help bridge the gap between them and their teens. I educate parents on the biosocial theory and impress the importance of them meeting their teens where they are while providing "gentle" parent coaching. Show less

Intensive Outpatient Parent Clinician

• Mar 2022 - Present

Mental Health Clinician

• Aug 2021 - Dec 2021

Family Advocate

• Jan 2019 - May 2019