About Reina

Professional experience and training

I have post-graduate training in play therapy, gestalt play therapy, gestalt therapy, sandtray therapy, expressive arts, positive discipline, and techniques for working with how the body holds in trauma and stress such as somatic experiencing, prolonged exposure, trauma releasing exercises, relaxation skills, and yoga therapy with children and adolescents.

My clinical experience has specialized in working with children, adolescents, families, and adults. I earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology and Masters of Social Work at San Diego State University. I interned for a year at UCSD Gifford/Outpatient Clinic working with adults who were dually diagnosed and a year at Rady Children’s Hospital Outpatient Psychiatry offering outpatient therapy to children, adolescents, and their families. I then worked at The San Diego Center for Children in a residential treatment program for six years as a therapist for emotionally disturbed children, young adolescents, and their families. These children and their families often had experienced sexual, verbal, and/or physical abuse and/or severe neglect and abandonment.
In these settings I gained experience doing individual, group, and family therapy, working with parents on parenting difficulties, helping parents navigate the school systems to get their children’s needs met with teachers or through IEP meetings, and connecting families with other needed community resources.