Sarah qualified as a mental health nurse in Northern Ireland in 1993. She is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and a member of both the Royal College of Nursing and the Association of Family Therapy. She has worked with Children and Adolescents and their families since 2002. Sarah has a diploma in Systemic Practice and is an Certified Theraplay Practitioner. She uses a range of therapeutic models when working with children and young people, including Theraplay, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Sensory Attachment Intervention. She has experience in offering bereavement support to adults, children and young people. She is currently employed as Therapeutic LAC Nurse for Looked After Children in a Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland.
Sarah has experience of providing a range of mental health training to health and social care staff, volunteers and foster carers. She is on the Theraplay Supervision practicum.
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MA in Psychology, certified Theraplay Practitioner, certified Nurture and Play Practioner and trained to be a supervisor and trainer in Theraplay. She works in her own practice and at a mental health care institution in The Netherlands. She is working with kids and their families and specializes in attachment issues and trauma. Marike can be reached at [email protected]
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Is a Group Theraplay ® Trainer. Since completing a Bachelor of Social Work in 2003, Melita has provided direct support and supervision in leading teams to assist individuals, families, educators and children within the Early Years, Family Services and community sectors. Through her work in the early years at BCYF in regional Victoria, Melita was first trained in Sunshine Circles ® and Level 1 Theraplay & MIM in 2017/2018 and has since passionately integrated and embedded this knowledge and practice into her work with children and families, continuously inspired by the strong outcomes that are achieved. Melita also works alongside Early Childhood Educators supporting the integration of Sunshine Circles group work into kindergarten settings.
Melita is a Certified Group Theraplay Practitioner and Trainer.
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AAMFT Approved Supervisor, Certified Theraplay Practitioner, TBRI Practitioner
Jeremy Johnson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of Tennessee with over 25 years of experience working with adults, children, and families. Jeremy is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner, a Theraplay Supervisor-in-Training, and a Theraplay Trainer. Jeremy is passionate about using Theraplay strategies in his work with children and their families in his private practice in Hendersonville, Tennessee. His areas of interest and expertise include working with families and children with attachment issues, anxiety and depression issues, impulse control and behavior issues, self-esteem issues, and children from divorced homes. Jeremy also specializes in working with adoptive and foster families, and he brings a unique perspective to this work as he and his wife, Kelli, are adoptive parents.
Jeremy is a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner and has extensive training in Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT). He is also a Certified Brainspotting Practitioner.
Jeremy serves as a faculty supervisor for the Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and he is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. Jeremy completed his Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. Jeremy can be reached at [email protected] or via his website at www.theconnectionplace.org.
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I’m Leanne Dijkstra-de Neijs from the Netherlands. That is where I got my down to earth work ethos. But I’m also Indonesian, which is where I got my strong family orientated bonds. Originally I schooled to be a nurse. During my last nursing internships at a children’s home I learned that there was so much I did not know yet, so I decided to continue my studies at the Radboud University Nijmegen to become a child psychologist. After working with children for several years it dawned on me how strangely it was to be mostly talking to them and through that expecting that things would get better. When knowing that play is children’s natural language. So, I went back to the University to learn about playtherapy. This was an immediate fit for me and my view at therapy for children. A few years later I was given the opportunity to transfer to an expertise center for autism within my company. Here I learned so much more on systemic working and parent-child relation/interaction problems due to underlying classifications. Soon, individual playtherapy was not enough to my experience within this environment. That’s when I got introduced to Theraplay. And although Theraplay is not specifically indicated for families with ASD, it originated from it in its early days. Practice based we saw huge positive changes between children with ASD and their parents. Seeing and hearing each other better, connecting in a more nurturing way and enjoying each others company again instead of just surviving through the days. We were so enthusiastic about these results and wanted to share our findings with others. But to do so, they needed to be reliable. That’s where my ongoing PhD trajectory originated. As can be read, I love to learn, but I also love learning as an activity on itself. This is why I became a Theraplay trainer and supervisor. Through the above, I hope to contribute in a small way to a warm and engaged world which, in my opinion starts in every individual familie.
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is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Certified Theraplay Therapist. Ritamaria completed her graduate training at Roosevelt University and has spent her professional career as a pediatric therapist, clinical supervisor, and as the clinical director of a child and family private practice, Individual and Family Connection, located in Chicago, Il and River Forest, Il.
Ritamaria’s areas of expertise and passion include building healthy attachments and bonds between children and their caretaker. She has experience working with children who have had relational trauma, abuse, neglect, loss, “BiG T” traumas, and medical trauma. Ritamaria is also focused in supporting parents by helping them understand the meaning behind their child’s behavior. Ritamaria uses a strengths-based approach and in addition to Theraplay, Ritamaria is trained in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and EMDR.
Ritamaria has a warm, supportive presence. Her clients and supervisees share they feel at ease when they meet Ritamaria for the first time. Ritamaria is able to connect with some of the most ‘hard to reach’ clients by validating their struggles and taking the time to understand the unique way they experience the world. She is often quick to identify her client’s strengths (even when they can’t find them for themselves) and is able to help them utilize these strengths to reach their personal goals. Ritamaria views therapy and supervision as a collaborative effort to create positive change and strengthen family systems and relationships.
Ritamaria Laird may be reached at [email protected]
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Kerri Garner, LPC, specializes in the use of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and EMDR along with Theraplay® in her work with children, adolescents, families, and adults from all over the world. An adoptive mother herself, Kerri is passionate about bringing children and their caregivers into closer, healing relationships with each other. While her specialties include childhood abuse, trauma, attachment, PTSD, relationships, and parenting, she enjoys working with cross-cultural transition, immigrant families, and adjustment related to multicultural experiences as well.
Kerri earned her Masters in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University Chicago in 1999, and has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2001. She practiced in Chicago and Phoenix for many years, serving children and families in group homes, foster care, and private practice. For most of the past decade, Kerri lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya, where she had a thriving private practice that served the diverse international community there. She also partnered with several childrens’ homes, providing therapy to their children and, more importantly, training the Kenyan caregivers and staff in Theraplay and trauma-informed care. Kerri spearheaded and led the first ever Level One Theraplay training of counseling professionals in East Africa in February of 2020.
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MA, MDE, CPT-S, CTT, CDDPT, RP
Hannah is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner since 2007. She is a certified Play Therapist, Supervisor, and Training Provider with the Canadian Association for Play Therapy. She is also a certified DDP Practitioner, Consultant and Trainer. Hannah has 30 years’ experience working with children and families who experience life challenges including developmental and emotional difficulties, trauma and loss. Hannah provides supervision and consultation to therapists and organizations, and conducts training workshops nationally and internationally. Hannah is also an author of children’s books and therapeutic games. She lives and works in Ontario, Canada. You can find out more about Hannah at www.hannahsunreid.com, and reach her at [email protected]
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Seyoung served as the president of the Korean Association of Theraplay®. She is a certified Theraplay Trainer, Supervisor, and Practitioner. She has studied child welfare and psychotherapy at Sookmyung Women’s University. She’s a clinical director of the Playful Healing Counseling Center in Seoul, South Korea. She’s interested in ASD and adaptive disorder child Theraplay. In the main research, there is “Action Research on the Parent Training based Theraplay for Children with Developmental Disabilities”.
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Jennifer (Nif) Obeid-Campbell, MS, LMHC is a Certified Group Theraplay® Trainer, Group Supervisor-in-Training, Certified Theraplay Practitioner, and Certified EMDR therapist. Nif received her Bachelors of Science in Marine Science and Biology and a minor in Chemistry from University of Miami in 1994. She returned to UM and earned a BS in Psychology in 1996. Upon graduating, she worked for four years with children with ASD in a home-based Discrete Trial Instruction (DTI) program. During that time, she worked in an ASD program and an intensive home-based family services program for teens at risk of being removed from their home. She relocated to Washington State in 2000 and earned an MS in Counseling Psychology from Central Washington University in 2002. After graduation, she began work in the Bonding and Attach program at a community mental health agency and received advanced training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), EMDR, CBT, and DBT. Nif was the agency coordinator for the DBT program. Recently, she has also added Emotionally-focused Therapy (EFT) to her arsenal and has begun delving into marriage counseling. Nif also served as the mental health consultant for her county’s Head Start program for 15 years and became an adjunct professor in the Psychology Department for Central Washington University. Nif opened a private practice in 2009 and currently works with a wide range of client issues, but maintains her passion for helping those with developmental trauma. She views lifespan development through an attachment lens and emphasizes neurobiological processes to help her clients create positive change in their lives. Discovering her passion for teaching has led Nif to create her own attachment-based, neuroscience-focused parenting model that has been used to train parents and foster caregivers, teachers, legal professionals, and childcare providers for the past 15 years. She is currently working with a local school district to bring attachment concepts into the school setting so children can consistently encounter adults who are emotionally available to support their academic, social and emotional needs.
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