Anita Johanson Maddox
M.A., L.C.P.C, R.P.T.
Anita Johanson Maddox is a licensed clinical counselor and licensed professional educator with over thirty years of experience in varied settings that include a community mental health center, the Special Education District of Lake County, and 20 years at The Theraplay Institute. She has enjoyed working with a variety of populations from infants to the elderly. Her experience as a staff therapist at a Community Mental Health Center involved treating individuals and groups with both young families and the chronically mentally ill. During that time, she also worked at The Children’s Memorial Hospital (renamed Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago) as an Infant Care Volunteer Coordinator. She was employed for thirteen years at The Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL) as a Family Specialist. In the Spring of 2020, she became a Contractual Therapist at The Theraplay Institute. Anita has an interest in treating young children, children who have a variety of concerns that include, but are not limited to, characteristics of autism, medical and or developmental concerns, trauma and attachment concerns, and parent-child relationship difficulties. Using Theraplay® techniques, she guides families in experiencing happiness and togetherness. As a result, families achieve increased closeness and discover more positive ways of interacting. Anita creates a connection with families, and helps them develop a new perspective of their child’s worthiness and special strengths. Various experiences in her life have sparked her interest in working with families to assist them in understanding, accepting, and respecting each other. Anita has discovered the empowerment that can be provided to people who have experienced challenges in their lives.
Anita is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner and a Registered Play Therapist – Supervisor. She has co-presented at The Theraplay Institute International Conferences and also co-authored an article which was published in The Theraplay Institute Newsletter, as well as a chapter in the book Applications of Family and Group Theraplay, Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, 2009, edited by Evangeline Munns. In addition to mental health licenses in Illinois and Wisconsin, Anita also has a State of Illinois Educators License Early Childhood (Birth to Third Grade).
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