AREAS OF EXPERTISE Early Childhood Mental Health Early Childhood Systems Trauma & Toxic Stress Family Therapy School-based Consultation Play Therapy Dance Movement Therapy Express
Trang 1AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Early Childhood Mental Health
Early Childhood Systems
Trauma & Toxic Stress
Family Therapy
School-based Consultation
Play Therapy
Dance Movement Therapy
Expressive Arts Therapy
Social Justice Advocacy
Community Outreach
Arts Advocacy
LICENSURE
Registered Dance Movement
Therapist (R-DMT)
May 2015
License-Eligible Mental Health
Counselor Candidate
LANGUAGES
English
Jamaican Patois (Dialect)
Spanish (Basic)
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Stefanie D Belnavis, R-DMT
175 Fulton Street, Medford, MA 02155 267-334-5431, stefanie.d.belnavis@gmail.com
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Dedicated dance movement therapist and early childhood clinician with two years experience in outpatient community mental health, providing relational-based assessment, treatment planning, and therapy services to young children and their families struggling with a range of symptoms related to trauma, disrupted attachments, domestic and community violence, racial injustice, homelessness, and
other significant life stressors
EDUCATION Institute of Non-Profit Practice Program, Boston, MA 2016 - Present
In affiliation with the Jonathan M Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University
CORE Fellow
Lesley University, Cambridge, MA 2015
Masters of Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Specialization in Dance Movement Therapy
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK 2008
Bachelor of Arts, Contemporary Modern Dance
CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH EXPERIENCE The Home for Little Wanderers Boston, MA
Preschool Outreach Program
• Ensure the clinician perspective is reflected in the HFLW agency wide initiatives and priorities with a focus on racial equality and diversity across the 60+ agency programs and the communities we serve,
Clinician and Mental Health Consultant June 2015 - Present
• Provide clinical services to young children (ages two to seven) and their caregivers Treatment modalities used include individual play therapy, dance movement therapy, sand tray therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL),!and, Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Therapy
• Serve as mental health consultant to assigned preschools and childcare centers in the Boston area, providing teacher and staff consultation, parent and teacher trainings, school-based therapy, classroom and student observations, feedback sessions, and crisis intervention services when needed
• Implemented of a trauma-informed expressive arts therapy playroom through the use a variety of instructional and experiential arts-based methodologies to engage clients, caregivers, collaterals and clinicians through this creative therapeutic modality within the field of early childhood mental health, to further support early childhood development, trauma informed care, promoting social
and emotional development, and responding to challenging behaviors
• Develop trainings and serve as consultant on topics including trauma informed practice, early childhood development, managing challenging behaviors, and self care
• Manage caseload of 20+ clients, meeting productivity expectations of 24 hours per week, and collaborating with appropriate collaterals (caseworkers, in-home therapy teams, wraparound supports, schools, etc.) as needed
• Responsible for administering early childhood assessments and completing all required documentation, including progress notes, agency paperwork, insurance authorization extension requests, clinical assessments, treatment plans, and quarterly assessments
Trang 2ADDITIONAL TRAININGS &
SEMINARS
2016
New England Association for Play
Therapy Annual Conference
2016
Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)
2016
Center on the Social and Emotional
Foundations for Early Learning
(CSEFEL)
2015
Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation
Treatment (SMART)
2015
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
2015
The Massachusetts Department of
Public Health ‘Safe to Infant Sleep
Practices’ Training
2014, 2015 & 2016
American Dance Movement Therapy
Conference
Empowerment Through Integration (ETI) Boston, MA
Dance Movement Therapy Program Manager Sept 2016 – Present
• Develop trauma-informed dance movement therapy curriculum for annual inclusion summer camp program hosted by ETI for blind and sighted Lebanon youths
• Serve as a consultant and trainer for ETI staff and volunteers on topics including trauma informed practice, disability advocacy, child development, resiliency, managing challenging behaviors, and self care
The Diahann Project Boston, MA
Founder & Dance Movement Therapy Consultant May 2015 - Present
• Developed a trauma-informed and culturally empathetic performance art and community mental health collaborative to facilitate the intersectionality of the arts, culture, mental health and disability advocacy within communities
throughout the Caribbean to Diaspora
Boston Children’s Hospital Boston, MA
Early Intervention Program
Clinical Dance Movement Therapy Graduate Intern Aug 2014 – May 2015
• Observed and co-led dance movement therapy and infant-parent psychotherapy developmental interventions for individual home or daycare therapy sessions for developmentally delayed infants and toddlers 0 to 3 years old and their families from various ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, within the early intervention program
• Facilitated weekly toddler-parent developmental playgroups as a co-lead, which consisted of gross motor stretches, simple rhythmic movements, visualizations, storytelling, symbolic play, snack time and circle time
• Collaborated with other developmental specialist clinicians and mental health professionals within a transdisciplinary developmental team to formulate, implement and monitor therapeutic goals for individual clients and their caregivers, along with administer the Battelle Developmental Inventory II assessment to existing and new clients to determine eligibility for early intervention services
The Paraclette Academy Boston, MA
Dance Movement Therapy Graduate Intern Aug 2013 – June 2014
• Implemented arts-based psychotherapy treatment plans specific to the needs of at-risk children aged 7-14 year of various ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds within this Boston-based community after-school educational setting to enrich their academic curriculum and social emotional functioning
• Conducted weekly individual dance/movement and play therapy sessions with children with a range of symptoms related to attachment disorders, regulation concerns, and, intellectual learning disabilities
• Conducted weekly movement-based groups, which included visual arts projects, photography, movement and verbal storytelling, bibliotherapy, puppetry, role-playing and age-appropriate games, which explored culturally diverse forms of dance and movement to develop and inform their cultural understanding of the origins of movement
Perkins School for the Blind Watertown, MA
Dance Movement Therapy Graduate Intern Jan 2013 – May 2013
• Observed, developed and co-led expressive therapy groups that focused on the use of movement and song whilst implementing arts-based treatment
interventions specific to the children between the ages of 3-12 years old with visual, hearing, and physical impairments, and, developmental delays
• Documented and implemented treatment recommendations for three individual children of varying ethnic, racial, socioeconomic and disability backgrounds
• Consulted bi-weekly with educational teachers and other professionals to ensure the execution of collaborated treatment care practices for each child
Trang 3AWARDS
2015
The Lesley University Student
Association of Graduate School of Arts
and Social Sciences (S.A.G.)
Student Leadership Award
2015
The Lesley University Norma Canner
Scholarship Award
Dance Movement Therapy Graduate Student
Award
2014 - 2015
The New England American Dance
Therapy Association (N.E.A.D.T.A.)
Penny Lewis & Norma Canner Student
Scholarship
2012 - 2013
The Lesley University Dean’s Merit
Scholarship Award
Graduate Student Award
INTERNATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH EXPERIENCE Lesley University La Romana, DR
Expressive Arts with Trauma Affected Populations Course
Graduate Student Volunteer Mar 2015
• Consulted and collaborated with Dominican educators and mental health professionals regarding the historical and current socio-political framework surrounding xenophobia and racism between persons of Haitian and Dominican descent coexisting in the Dominican Republic
• Examined and mediated the challenges of providing culturally sensitive therapeutic interventions within “marginalized communities”, namely the people
of Haitian descent currently residing in La Romana, Dominican Republic
• Collaborated with community leaders and local community artists regarding the implementation of culturally sensitive trauma informed arts-based treatments, and, the post-colonial implications of introducing expressive arts mediums in an international context
• Developed and co-led three expressive therapy groups with the children of Fundacion Crecimiento Comunitario Fucpe that utilized a variety of treatment techniques, including visual art, role-playing, movement, singing and age-appropriate games to help children recognize and work through their feelings surrounding their identity
• Developed an understanding of the importance of self-care as it related to vicarious trauma and countertransference in clinical and community-based expressive therapies practice within the context of a developing country
Expressive Arts Place Service Learning Program La Vallee/Jacmel, Haiti
Expressive Arts Service Learning Volunteer June 2014
• Organized and the facilitated the execution of a two week cultural and artistic exchange in a rural Haitian community of La Vallee, which culminated with a weeklong expressive arts therapy summer camp for 15 local teachers and over 60 elementary students from 6 local schools to introduce the experiential approach
of expressive arts in to their current academic curriculum
• Developed and co-led five expressive arts therapy groups with Haitian adolescent children and local teachers, which helped to pioneer a social-skills group that allowed children to act as leaders and collaborators with their peers, whilst utilizing a variety of treatment techniques, including body-based movement, visual art, role-playing, singing and culturally sensitive interventions
to build resiliency and self-love
• Collaborated with local teachers, community leaders and Haitian educational translators to understand and encourage the importance of the use of the arts in rural Haitian schools to develop psycho-educational support and emotional support for the students and educational practitioners
• Collaborated with 3 local elementary schools and residents to install bio-sand water filters for the Volunteers For Peace’s clean water initiative along with other art-based community projects
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