Resume - Andrea Steffens, Ph.D, CTS

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Hawthorne University, San Francisco, (now Sierra University, Santa Monica, CA)
M.A., California State University, Sonoma,
Post-Graduate training includes; Traumatic Stress Studies; Conjoint Family Therapy; Depth Psychology (Jungian psychotherapy), expressive arts therapy.

Residencies and Training - Examples:

· American Lake Veterans Hospital, Tacoma, WA, Inpatient clinical
  program for Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD.
· Death and Dying, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
· Center for Attitudinal Healing, Tiburon, CA - serving children and adults
  with life threatening and terminal diseases.
· Traumatic Incident Reduction training.
· Life Stress Reduction Training.
· Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota, Affiliated
  Scholar.
· Presenter, Minnesota Center for Victims of Torture.
· Hospice of Foothills, dream work with terminal cancer patients.

Educator and Lecturer:

· Colleges and universities since 1975 with emphasis on trauma, family and
  community studies, expressive arts and autobiographical writing and
  performance. Presenter/facilitator at conferences.

Credentials held
· Certified Traumatologist, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology.
· Certified Trauma Specialist, Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists.
· Certified Marriage and Family Therapist, Washington State.
· Certified Expressive Therapist, National Expressive Therapist Association.
· Certified practitioner: Rebonding with the Body, Dana Mulvihill, child
  psychiatrist, Vancouver, Canada.
· California lifetime teaching credential.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Private counseling, consulting practice
Specialty: trauma and PTSD.
Founder/director of Arts and Trauma Training Center, St Paul, MN.

Trainer and developer of Writing Though The Body(a crafted writing technique) - memoir writing, arts Processes, mask making, ceramic tiles, collage, painting, voice, music, theatre, Writers Performing Jazz Ensemble (modified readers theatre).

Consulting work in organizational development, team building, program design, in-service training in stress management and trauma treatment, self-care for educators and health care professionals -- include but are not limited to:
· United Hospital, St. Paul, MN: Team member in study of cancer patient’s
  dreams.
· Hospice of the Foothills, Nevada City, CA: Worked with terminally ill
  cancer patients.
· Visiting Nurses Association, Nevada City, CA.
· American Lake V. A. Hospital, PTSD Unit, Tacoma, WA: Training in
  identifying and treating PTSD Training in expressive arts, visual arts,
  writing, performance and sand tray work. Set up expressive arts program,
  including treatment of traumatic nightmares.
· Department of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Sacramento,
  CA: team member for assessing services for children and youth
  throughout the state.
· Alaska Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Juneau: Staff training in family
  systems.
· Ketchikan (AK) Borough Mental Health Center: Staff training in dreams
  and using collage as projective test technique.
· Red Cross Disaster Team, St. Paul, MN: Helped develop delivery of
  services in coordination with national organization.
· Staff trainings at battered women’s shelters in Fairbanks, Alaska, Moscow,
  Idaho, Grass Valley and Auburn, California.
· KVMR radio, Nevada City, CA.

Director, Communities Organized for Health Options, Craig, Alaska,
Designed and implemented a mental health program (community psychology model) with a cross-cultural perspective for community mental health agency serving Prince of Wales Island with a large Native American population. Clients included Vietnam veterans, victims of domestic violence, and native Alaskans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from cultural decimation. Treated adults and children with demonstrated high-risk behaviors due to transgenerational traumatic stress associated with loss of culture (resulting in poverty and family drug/alcohol abuse, domestic violence). Led groups for battered/abused women. Created an art therapy program for children. Designed a program of writing and theatre as therapy to at-risk Native American high school students in Klawok, Alaska.

Mental Health Director, Placer/Nevada/Yuba/Washoe (CA) Head Start.
Developed an inter-agency team for identification and intervention for abused children (and mothers); developed workshops and conferences; re-designed and re-organized program procedures; special commendation by federal government for design and implementation of a training program for lay social workers; wrote and received grant from the Federal Office of Education for a research and demonstration program; presentations and reports to governing boards and community groups, national, regional offices, and at national conferences; established tri-county media resource library; supervised graduate students in social work; trained lay social workers.

Media and Creative Work includes but not limited to radio producer, writer and talent, New York, California; performance artist; gallery artist; poet-in-residence; author; grant recipient/commissions. Writing: film script;  helped students write a performance script, Hamilton High School, Hamilton, New York. 

Volunteer work (partial)

· New York State Theater Education Association: taught at state conference
  for high school students.
· Memoir writing group, Hamilton Library and Life Long Learning at
  Colgate University, Hamilton NY.
· National Children’s Hospital, Washington, DC
· UNICEF, New York, NY.
· Domestic Violence Centers; California, Alaska, Idaho – staff training &
  support.
· Red Cross Disaster Team, St Paul, MN
· Delegate to UN for report by The Commission on the Status of Women.

Internships:
· Marin County (CA) Mental Health, in-patient and outpatient clinics.
· Sonoma State University Counseling Center, American Lake Veterans
  Hospital, Post Traumatic Stress in-patient unit.