“People Start to Heal the moment they are heard.” ~Cheryl Richardson
Executive Leadership Team
Susan "Suzy" Bienvenu, LPCC, RPT-S,
Founding Member, Board of Directors, Clinical Director
Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator
Suzy is a licensed professional clinical counselor and registered play
therapist supervisor. She has been a children’s therapist in Santa Fe for 25
years. She is in private practice and has worked at Gerard’s House as the
clinical director and at Esperanza Shelter as the children's
therapist. She is passionate about the mission of this agency and hopes to
bring more services to the young children in Santa Fe and the rest of the
state, through play therapy training for professionals, counseling services for
the children, and support for parents.
Lisa Dykes-Harrell, LPCC, RPT-S, Founding
Member, Training Director
Lisa has over 25 years counseling experience that ranges from
school counseling to private practice, to full time university instructor in
counseling. Lisa has been using Play Therapy extensively in her practices since
2001. She has presented numerous counseling and play therapy workshops for CE
credit and supervises future therapists and Play therapists. After retiring
from Eastern New Mexico University in 2015, Lisa moved to Santa Fe, NM where
she has worked with the Military Family Life Counselor Program (MFLC) and
currently the Child Counseling Center and Play Therapy Institute of New Mexico.
Meredith Baca, LPCC, RPT, Board of Directors, Treasurer, Program Director
Meredith D. Baca has worked with children and adolescents since 2011. She was born in Santa Fe and raised in Northern New Mexico. It was during graduate school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, where she found her passion for Play Therapy. She is an Independently Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and Registered Play Therapist (RPT). She has worked in inpatient, outpatient, residential treatment centers and in private practice throughout her career. She is passionate about Play Therapy and striving to provide a place of healing for all her clients.
Eliza Combs, LPCC, ATR, RPT, SAP®, Founding Member, Advisory Member, Marketing & PR Director
Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator
Eliza is of Irish, Cornish, German and ancestral lineages still being learned. Eliza is an Independently Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and nationally Registered Art Therapist (ATR) Registered Play Therapist (RPT) and Somatic Archeology Practitioner (SAP®). They are currently studying American Sign Language, body centered healing practices, Somatic Abolitionism and Sensorimotor Art Therapy.
Eliza graduated from Freedom Lodge, a year long historical trauma training and integrates body centered work with creative modalities in their work as an expressive arts therapist. Eliza is guided in their work by an anti-racist, social justice framework, the earth, the body, mystery, presence, intuition, play, curiosity and creativity. They have worked for over 22 years with children, adults and families in community based organizations. The last 10 years they have worked in New Mexico agencies in Chimayo, Abiquiu, Los Lunas, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Eliza is passionate about expressive arts, play and body centered therapy for all people especially children.
Additional Board Leadership
Dee
Ann Briceño-Roybal, Board of Directors
Dee Ann is a Santa Fe
Native. She is a mother of four, one son and three daughters. She earned her
MBA in 2010 and her Masters in Counseling in 2013. The majority of her
career has been managing offices. She has worked for lawyers, the public
schools and the School for the Deaf, where she learned ASL, and the financial
industry, and now the Foundation where she can do what she truly loves, make a
difference in the lives of others in her community. She has always been very
involved with her children and their schools. She is a Girl Scout troop leader,
where she has instilled in her troop the importance of giving back to their
community. Her troop does a number of community outreach projects every year to
help the homeless, veterans in our community, and children in our community by
partnering with the Adelante program by organizing coat, food and toy
drives. She is also a basketball and cheer coach, a member of the Monte de
Sol parent association, and sits on the Board of Directors at the Child
Counseling Center of New Mexico.
Kelsie Bacon, LCSW, Board of Directors, Secretary is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with 4.5 years of experience using play therapy techniques to work with children. She is a graduate from the University of New Mexico with a BA in Psychology and Family Therapy and attended New Mexico Highlands University for graduate school for clinical social work. She is a therapist at the Treehouse in Albuquerque New Mexico, and she is passionate about working with neurodivergent children, adolescents, and adults. Kelsie is currently working towards her registered play therapy certification and is a certified AutPlay provider. She utilizes DIRFloortime techniques, AutPlay, sand tray, and various play therapy techniques
Robyn D Rausch, LPC, RPT, trainer, Board of Directors, Chair
Robyn has 5 years of experience in play therapy. She has been working with kids with mental health difficulties most of her life and has a great passion for helping families build resilience and regulation. She currently works with Renewing Hope Counseling in Houston, Texas and advocates through her business, Calming Communities. She practices Adlerian Play Therapy through Relational Cultural Lens and includes a lot of neuroscience as the foundation for skill building. For more information about Robyn, check out her page www.calmingcommunities.com
Geri Glover, PhD, LPCC, RPT-S, Founding Member, Board of Directors
Geri Glover has worked with children and families for over 30 years in education, day treatment programs, private practice, mental health clinics, and is currently Professor and Chair of the Counseling Department at New Mexico Highlands University. She completed research in Filial Therapy with Native Americans residing on the Flathead Reservation in northern Montana in honor of her Salish ancestry. Her research has appeared in such publications as The School Counselor Journal and The International Journal of Play Therapy. Dr. Glover is a strong advocate of multicultural awareness and its importance in the therapeutic relationship. She has numerous publications, and is co-author of Play Therapy Interventions with Children’s Problems.
Advisory
Kathleen Benecke MA LPCC IMH-E IV
Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator
After a 21 year
career as a Pediatric, Hospice and HIV nurse, Kathleen received her Master of
Arts in Counseling from the University of New Mexico in 1997 and is Nationally Board
Certified Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She initially worked as a
Hospice counselor in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties. In 1999 she was
instrumental in establishing the Community Infant Program which was the first
Infant Parent Mental Health program in Santa Fe. In 2007 she was intensively
trained in DBT and has been interested in incorporating that work into Infant
Mental Health. She has been endorsed by the New Mexico Association of Infant
Mental Health (NMAIMH) since 2008. She is also intensively trained in the
Circle of Security Parenting Model and is a Registered Circle of Security
Parent Educator. In June 2015, she
completed an eighteen month training in CPP-Child Parent Psychotherapy. Kathleen
has been in Private Practice since October 2012 and has been a member of the
Northern New Mexico Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Team since December
2012.
Therapists Working at Our Agency
Kelly O. Finnerty, M.A., LMFT
Kelly O. Finnerty is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with Master's degrees in both and Marriage and Family Therapy and Interdisciplinary Creative Arts. With over a decade of experience working as a therapist, she has helped children who are experiencing anxiety, depression and trauma while offering support to their parents and families. Her training includes trauma-informed expressive arts, play therapy and body-based therapy approaches. She has frequently provided training in these approaches for mental health professionals. Through her extensive experience working with children of diverse cultures in school and community settings, as well as through her personal experience as a mother, she has seen the how the creative power of child-centered play helps children heal and grow. She is excited to contribute to the mission and potential of the Child Counseling Center and Play Therapy Institute of New Mexico.
Meredith Baca, LPCC, RPT, Board of Directors
Meredith D. Baca has worked with children and adolescents since 2011. She was born in Santa Fe and raised in Northern New Mexico. It was during graduate school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, where she found her passion for Play Therapy. She is an Independently Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and Registered Play Therapist (RPT). She has worked in inpatient, outpatient, residential treatment centers and in private practice throughout her career. She is passionate about Play Therapy and striving to provide a place of healing for all her clients.
Susan "Suzy" Bienvenu, LPCC, RPT-S,
Founding Member, Chair, Board of Directors
Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator
Suzy is a licensed professional clinical counselor and registered play therapist supervisor. She has been a children’s therapist in Santa Fe for 25 years. She is in private practice and has worked at Gerard’s House as the clinical director and at Esperanza Shelter as the children's therapist. She is passionate about the mission of this agency and hopes to bring more services to the young children in Santa Fe and the rest of the state, through play therapy training for professionals, counseling services for the children, and support for parents.
Circle of Security Facilitators
Jeanne Du Rivage, MA, OTR/L, SEP
Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator
Jeanne is a licensed occupational therapist with over 30 years of experience working with children and families. She is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, an approach developed by Dr. Peter Levine, to address the impact of trauma. She specializes in working with sensory processing and social emotional challenges as well as developmental trauma. She is passionate about working with children and families and believes that empathy and love are powerful tools for healing. Jeanne is a Registered Circle of Security Parent Educator and values the opportunity to share the Circle of Security program with parents and caregivers.
Maggie
Geri Glover has worked with children and families for over 30 years in education, day treatment programs, private practice, mental health clinics, and is currently Professor and Chair of the Counseling Department at New Mexico Highlands University. She completed research in Filial Therapy with Native Americans residing on the Flathead Reservation in northern Montana in honor of her Salish ancestry. Her research has appeared in such publications as The School Counselor Journal and The International Journal of Play Therapy. Dr. Glover is a strong advocate of multicultural awareness and its importance in the therapeutic relationship. She has numerous publications, and is co-author of Play Therapy Interventions with Children’s Problems.
