Shannon Murphy Cerise

Shannon’s professional career is centered on helping adults, children and families impacted by trauma, including through adoption and foster care. She leads SMC Counseling Services in Dallas, Texas, a specialized practice centered on helping biological, adoptive, and foster parents and families that are experiencing stress, struggle, and disconnection. Prior to 2014, her clinical work in Louisiana centered on counseling people impacted by Hurricane Katrina and later as a specialized adoption therapist. She was previously the director of a residential and educational program for at-risk youth.

Shannon holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Social Work degree from Louisiana State University. She was licensed in Louisiana (#4300) in 1998 and in Texas (#61433) in 2015. In 2008 she completed a 90-hour post-graduate certification program in adoption-competent practice through Louisiana State University. In addition, she is a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) practitioner, and she completed the Adult Attachment Interview Training program in 2019. 

Shannon completed Theraplay Level One training in 2015, just as her own children were launching towards independence. Theories and practices presented in that initial training matched so closely with her experiences and learnings in her parenting journey, she was compelled to enter the practicum shortly thereafter. Shannon became a fully certified practitioner in 2018. She principally centers her professional work with parents and children around the Theraplay modality because of the consistent and positive improvements she’s been witness to in the relationships between parents and children she serves.

Regarding training and supervision, Shannon considers herself a life-long learner and approached her own Theraplay training as an opportunity to challenge herself professionally and personally. She enjoys focusing on building clinical skills in working with children and caregivers, seeking to lean hard into authenticity and transparency within the training and supervision process, and continually stretching her capacity to live in the present moment.  Training and supervising clinicians with The Theraplay Institute are only the newest iteration of her desire to learn and grow.

In a volunteer capacity, Shannon serves on the Advisory Board for the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University, the Interracial Healing Task Force in the Diocese of Dallas and is a member and past chair of the Board of Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Dallas. She is a sendee of the Living School, a program of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM, where she developed her contemplative practice. Mother to three children, now young adults, she enjoys exercising, reading, puzzling, and making new friends, particularly in her role as the co-founder of Dallas’ Multicultural Women’s Book Group.

If her background and interests resonate with you as a new Theraplay practitioner, Shannon would be pleased to connect with you. She can be reached at [email protected].