Rana Hong

Rana is certified Theraplay® Practitioner, Supervisor and Trainer. She is also a certified Parent-Child Interaction therapy® (PCIT) Therapist/Within agency Trainer, and certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing® (EMDR) Therapist and Consultant, and certified DIR/Floortime expert training leader. Rana is specialized in treating children, adolescents, and their parents with issues of attachment, anxiety, autism, behavioral issues, and trauma. Rana earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000 and Ph.D. in Social Work at Loyola University Chicago in 2014. Currently, she is a full-time faculty at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work while running a group practice-Playful Healing Center in Des Plaines, IL. For her recent publication, she wrote an article on “Becoming a neurobiologically informed play therapist” (Hong & Mason, 2016) and co-edited the book “Theraplay: Therapy, Applications, and Implementation” (2021).

Donna Gates

Donna is a Certified Theraplay® Practitioner and Trainer, formerly in private practice at David L. Gates and Associates in Illinois, but now living in Bluffton, SC near Hilton Head Island. For 18 years she did individual, couples, and family therapy as well as domestic violence treatment, anger management treatment for adults and children, and parenting training and consultation. Since 2015, she has focused on doing training and supervision for The Theraplay Institute, as well as providing parenting workshops. In the past she has worked as a youth and family counselor with Warren Township Youth Commission, developed a children’s program for Families in Touch/Teen Moms in Waukegan, and supervised college students as they worked in that program. She also worked with the teen moms in the FIT program, teaching parenting skills, life skills, and issues of domestic violence. Donna obtained her BA in Theology from Berkshire Christian College in Massachusetts before working with Campus Life/Youth for Christ in New York City. She then went on to obtain her MA in Counseling Psychology from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. In the past, she has presented at the Theraplay International Conference and has written an article for the Theraplay Newsletter on the use of Theraplay in domestic violence treatment groups. More recently she authored a chapter on use of “Theraplay with Families Affected by Domestic Violence” in the book “Theraplay: Theory, Applications and Implementation” (ed. by Sandra Lindaman & Rana Hong). Donna is the mother of two daughters and has eight grandchildren, all of whom enjoy helping her practice Theraplay activities.

Rand Coleman

Rand is a graduate of Hahnemann University, where he obtained his training in Clinical Psychology, specializing in Neuropsychology. After completing a two-year fellowship in the Department of Neuropsychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he worked in Green Bay, WI, providing support services for individuals with developmental disabilities. During this time, he and his wife, Anne, did emergency foster care, eventually transitioning to long term foster care, and adopting two children. He is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR), Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and attachment-based therapy and parenting techniques. Work for the Devereux Foundation in Pennsylvania has focused on care and treatment of children with autism, intellectual disability, and severe behavior problems. Family therapy work has used the Theraplay model in the service of helping families develop better relationships with their autistic children/siblings, and is integrated with other modalities, such as picture communication programs (e.g., PECS), teaching of daily life skills, positive behavioral supports, and community integration practice. Now in private practice, Rand’s time is split between providing therapy, doing neuropsychological testing, and conducting trainings. Rand can be reached at [email protected]

Gloria Cockerill

has worked extensively with children and their families impacted by abuse, neglect, issues of abandonment and the traumatic separation from family as well as a broad range of emotional and behavioral problems. She is passionate about helping children and their caregivers find hope and the strength to persevere and heal together forming stronger relationships.  Gloria enjoys working with children and families from diverse backgrounds and has experience working with families who have adopted children both domestically and internationally.  

Andrea Bushala

has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Miami University with an emphasis in child development. She obtained her Master of Social Work degree from Loyola University Chicago with a dual specialization in School Social Work and Children and Families. Andrea works with children and families at The Theraplay Institute as well as Healing Space Therapy where she is the co-founder of the practice.  Additionally, she has experience in the public school system providing individual and group therapy for children ages 4-6. In her clinical work, Andrea uses a strength-based perspective, incorporating the learnings of trauma, brain development and attachment theory in her work. In 2019, Andrea completed a two year postgraduate fellowship in Infant and Parent Mental Health at University of Massachusetts/Boston with Ed Tronick.  In addition to Theraplay, Andrea is trained in Dyadic Developmental Psychology, sand tray, narrative work and art therapy techniques. Andrea is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner, Group Theraplay Trainer and Supervisor. She can be reached at [email protected]

Susan Bundy-Myrow

is a psychologist in private practice and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry, State University of New York at Buffalo. She has included Theraplay in her work for more than twenty years, and is particularly interested in family and group Theraplay for children with developmental disabilities. Her writing has focused on Theraplay for children with autistic spectrum disorders and children with self-regulation problems.

Karen Doyle Buckwalter

Karen Doyle Buckwalter, LCSW, RPT-S is the Director and Owner of Carolina Attachment and Trauma Services. Her clinical areas of focus are attachment-related issues, trauma treatment, foster care and adoption, and residential treatment. She is also a trainer in Video Intervention Therapy. 

Karen completed her Level 1 Theraplay course in 1997 and earned Theraplay Trainer and Supervisor status in 2000. She has co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters as well as articles in Adoption Today and Fostering Families Today Magazines. She is the author of 2 books Attachment Theory in Action and Raising the Challenging Child. Karen has a special interest in the inter-generational transmission of attachment in adoption and is currently in a research partnership with the Center for Attachment Research at the New School examining this topic.

Karen has more than 30 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families. She holds a Master of Social Work Degree from Temple University and completed a 2-year post-master training program in Family Therapy at the Menninger Clinic. She is trained in scoring the Adult Attachment Interview. In addition, she has training in a diverse array of therapy approaches including Child Parent Psychotherapy, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Video Intervention Therapy, TF-CBT, EMDR, TBRI, and ARC.

Phyllis Booth

Is Clinical Director Emeritus of The Theraplay Institute in Evanston, Illinois. Phyllis began her career working with children and parents as a nursery school teacher. In 1967, she was among the first group of psychological consultants to the Head Start program in Chicago, where she began her long collaboration with Ann Jernberg developing the Theraplay method. She helped develop the theoretical underpinnings for Theraplay, and the structure and content of Theraplay training and certification practicum. In 2010, she rewrote and published the third edition of Theraplay: Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships Through Attachment-Based Play. Phyllis is the 2003 recipient of the Ann M. Jernberg award for outstanding contribution to Theraplay.

Sandra Lindaman

is a Certified Theraplay® Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer, and the Senior Training Advisor for The Theraplay® Institute in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Sandra has worked at The Theraplay Institute since 1990 in treatment, management, training curriculum development, publication and research; she has supervised hundreds of Theraplay practitioners, trainers and supervisors internationally. Her current supervision interests include the power of Theraplay’s combination of safety-social engagement-play and care, early intervention, developmental issues, selective mutism, autism, adoption, marginalized biological families and adverse childhood experiences.

Sandra has a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University- Chicago; she completed a one year clinical externship in the Family Systems Program at the Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois-Chicago. Sandra has completed Level 1 Dyadic Developmental Therapy training. She also has a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from Northwestern University and worked in that field for many years. Recent publications include: co-editing Theraplay Theory, Applications and Implementation (2020), co-authoring a Theraplay chapter in Porges and Dana’s Clinical Applications of Polyvagal Theory (2018) and co-authoring an article on “Attachment Theory and Theraplay” (2019) as a foundational model of play therapy for the Association of Play Therapy. Sandra also co-authored the theory, autism and adoption chapters in the 2010 third edition of Theraplay: Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships Through Attachment-Based Play. Sandra has spread the Theraplay model via training and supervision of professionals throughout the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. In 2004 she received the Ann M. Jernberg award for outstanding contribution to Theraplay.