In 2014 I graduated with a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and got a job with the non profit organization Alternative Family Services in Oakland, Ca. In my position I work with children and teens who have been removed by CPS due to abuse and neglect, with much of my work involving supporting families in rebuilding safe positive relationships and ultimately reunifying. One of the biggest barriers I have come across is the emergence of disruptive behaviors in children as a response to trauma which result in difficulty finding and maintaining placement for them and reunifying with family members who often times become overwhelmed and do not know how to effectively intervene.

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported intervention that a  has demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvements in the conduct-disordered behavior of preschool age children in addition to showing significant changes in parebt self reported measures of psychopathology, personal distress, and parenting locus is control.

Contributing to this fund will allow me to get trained and certified in this model so that I can deliver it to my clients and increase their odds of being able to return back to their families and maintain positive and safe relationships with them.