Clinical experience

 

After moving to the U.S in 2001, and embracing this country as mine, I first worked as a volunteer at the San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care (SDHPC) with terminally ill patients. At SDHPC I provided emotional support to families of patients facilitating their grief expression and communicating the patient's last wishes to their loved ones. During this time, I had the great honor to engage in Life Review work with individuals in their last days of life. Life Review is a therapeutic activity intended to empower older adults and those at their end-of-life phase to find hope, value, and meaning in their lives.  

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I subsequently earned a Master’s Degree in Psychology and a license to practice Psychotherapy in California. I started my career in the U.S working simultaneously at a psychiatric hospital, Alvarado Parkway Institute, and at a non-profit agency, Vista Hill Foundation, with the Incredible Families Program, a parent-child reconciliation program partnered with Child Welfare Services.

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At the hospital I worked in their inpatient unit, with patients suffering from various psychiatric disorders who were admitted due to psychosis, being a danger to someone or themselves or being diagnosed mentally incapacitated. At the non-profit agency I worked with children who had suffered different forms of abuse and neglect, and with their reconciliating parents providing trauma informed therapy to children, teaching the Incredible Years Parenting Program to their parents, and facilitating the reconciliation of these families. I had the privilege of working for this agency for five years in several positions such as Therapist, Parenting Educator, and Clinical Supervisor to Marriage and Family Therapy Interns and Trainees.  

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As my passion for working with children grew stronger over the past decade, I decided to open a Practice dedicated exclusively to children and adolescents. Since the work with children differs from the traditional "talk therapy" utilized with adults I became interested in "speaking" the children's natural language: PLAY. After completing years of specialized training in the field of Play Therapy and Expressive Arts with children and adolescents I became a Registered Play Therapist (RPT) and later a Play Therapy Supervisor (RPT- S).

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Nowadays I spend my working hours between the care of my clients, the management of my Play Therapy offices, trainings, and the supervision of professionals working towards their Play Therapy and Psychotherapy credentials. Some of my main areas of interest and expertise are childhood anxiety and parenting education.

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