leadership

“People Start to Heal the moment they are heard.” ~Cheryl Richardson

Therapists

Faye Finley LPCC, 

Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator 

Faye is a licensed professional clinical counselor and registered Circle of Security facilitator. She is a graduate of Southwestern College in Santa Fe.  Her counseling career has focused exclusively on children and families.  As champion for children, Faye strives to provide a safe, welcoming environment for her clients to heal.  In addition, Faye offers support to caregivers in their efforts to raise healthy, resilient children. 

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.

Holly Shaw, PhD, LPCC, RPT

Holly Shaw is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of New Mexico (LPCC), and also in Colorado (LPC). Holly is a Registered Play Therapist. She got her Master's in Community Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). Her Doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision, also from UNC, is with a speciality in Counseling Children and Adolescents. 

Holly did post-doctoral internship work at the Austin Child Guidance Center in Austin, Texas. In addition to working at a non-profit, she has also worked for community mental health and a college counseling center. She worked in private practice in Fort Collins, Colorado working with kids and adolescents with emotional and behavioral issues for 14 years. She has been practicing in the mental health field for over twenty years.

She taught classes as an adjunct professor for ten years, at the University of Northern Colorado and at Texas State University. She has taught the classes Counseling Children and Adolescents, Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect, Play Therapy Practicum, Legal and Ethical Issues, and Theories of Counseling. She has also taught Abnormal Psychology, Human Growth and Development, and Psychopathology in Children.

Holly has given numerous presentations on counseling children, including five presentations at the state level and one at a national conference. She gave a presentation called "Islands of Relief: Working with Children with Trauma" at the 2015 Colorado Counseling Association Annual Conference in Denver.

She co-authored a book chapter with Dr. Sandy Magnuson in 2006 on working with parents while their  children are in play therapy. This chapter is in the book Short-Term Play Therapy for Children, a popular choice among play therapy practitioners.

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.

Faye Finley LPCC, 

Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator 

Faye is a licensed professional clinical counselor and registered Circle of Security facilitator. She is a graduate of Southwestern College in Santa Fe.  Her counseling career has focused exclusively on children and families.  As champion for children, Faye strives to provide a safe, welcoming environment for her clients to heal.  In addition, Faye offers support to caregivers in their efforts to raise healthy, resilient children. 

Leadership Team

We utilize an alternative leadership model to a centralized executive director.

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.

 

Faye Finley LPCC, 

Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator

Faye is a licensed professional clinical counselor and registered Circle of Security facilitator. She is a graduate of Southwestern College in Santa Fe.  Her counseling career has focused exclusively on children and families.  As champion for children, Faye strives to provide a safe, welcoming environment for her clients to heal.  In addition, Faye offers support to caregivers in their efforts to raise healthy, resilient children. 

Eliza Combs, LPCC, ATR, RPT, SAP®, RYT® 200, Founding Member, Advisory Member, Marketing & PR Director

Registered Circle of Security Parenting (COSP™) Facilitator

Eliza is of working-class, settler, Irish, Cornish, German and ancestral lineages still being learned. Eliza is an Independently Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC), nationally Registered Art Therapist (ATR), nationally Registered Play Therapist (RPT), Somatic Archeology Practitioner (SAP®), and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT® 200). Most recently, they have been studying and practicing 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 processes 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 25 years with children, adults, and families in community-based organizations. For the last 14 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. 

Board of Directors

Meredith Baca, LPCC, RPT, Board of Directors, Board President, Therapist 

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.

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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 
 

Geri Glover, PhD, LPCC, RPT-S, Founding Member, Board of Directors, Treasurer

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.

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.

 

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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