Clinical Team Members
The clinical team consists of expressive therapists who have a passion for sharing their knowledge. Together they have worked to create a training program for low resource communities to increase mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). The program trains local facilitators on how to utilize supportive expressive arts to help their children heal from the effects of psychological, emotional, and physical trauma. The programming focuses on relationship building, safety, emotional expression, and support. During the training the trainees are invited to work with us to culturally adapt the activities we provide in order to create relevance, sustainability, and cultural empowerment.
When we create programs, we bring in support and expertise from our community of expressive art therapists. We are inviting expressive therapists to join in our global cause by donating activities to our Activities Database. To contribute to the database please click here or email us at info@playingtolive.org. Our mission is a community effort, and we are excited to bring people into our global effort of supporting children through child friendly support.
When we create programs, we bring in support and expertise from our community of expressive art therapists. We are inviting expressive therapists to join in our global cause by donating activities to our Activities Database. To contribute to the database please click here or email us at info@playingtolive.org. Our mission is a community effort, and we are excited to bring people into our global effort of supporting children through child friendly support.
Clinical Consultants
Rachel Crawford, MA, ATR-BC, LPCA, QP
Clinical Consultant Rachel is a Registered, Board Certified Art Therapist and a Licensed Professional Counseling Associate with a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art and Psychology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has a comprehensive history in nonprofit and nongovernmental organization administration, child protection and advocacy, program development and management, capacity building and strengthening, and mental health and psychosocial support consulting. Her clinical work abroad consists of conducting a supportive arts pilot with former street children and adolescents in Uganda, completing a community mural and storybook with secondary school students in India, and contributing to Safe Motherhood Ambassador trainings with Obstetric Fistula survivors in Ethiopia. |
Program Contributors
Play TherapistRebekah Byrd, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, RPT
Rebekah received both her master’s and her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from Old Dominion University. She is an associate professor of counseling for the school counseling program in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at East Tennessee State University. She currently serves on many national and statewide committees Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling (ACAC), Chi Sigma Iota (CSI), and Tennessee Counseling Association (TCA). She has edited a book on common encounters in school counseling and written many refereed journal articles and multiple book chapters. Her research specialization falls primarily in issues pertaining to children and adolescent, play therapy, school counseling, social justice/multicultural concerns. Other major research interests include group work, self-injury in adolescents, women’s wellness and Adlerian theory. Dr. Byrd has been a faculty member at ETSU since 2010 and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Nationally Certified Counselor, and a Registered Play Therapy Supervisor. She has over 10 years of experience in working with children and adolescents and maintains a client caseload specializing in children and adolescents and play therapy. |
Yoga Therapist & Art TherapistKristin Ramsey, ATR-BC, LPC, RYT-500
Kristin Ramsey is a Board Certified Art Therapist, a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a Therapeutic Yoga Instructor. She currently runs an art therapy program for pediatric oncology patients at a military treatment facility helping them process the wide range of emotions related to serious or terminal medical illnesses. Prior to this Kristin worked as an art therapist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Children’s National Health System, and Dominion Psychiatric Hospital. Throughout all of these placements Kristin has combined both expressive art therapy and yoga therapy in individual and group settings for all ages. She has participated in multiple research studies, including using yoga to reduce fatigue, using mindfulness to reduce stress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes, and is currently working on a study to assess the impact of art therapy on the pediatric oncology population and their families both during treatment and after. Kristin has a M.A. in Art Therapy from George Washington University as well as a B.S. in Architecture from Pennsylvania State University. She completed her Yoga Teacher Training in Northern India, her Yoga Therapy Training through the Integrative Yoga Therapy School, and has additional training in trauma-sensitive yoga, and yoga for children. She has presented her work at multiple American Art Therapy Association conferences, and three Expressive Therapies Summits, and co-published an article on using medical art therapy as palliative care. She is a member of the American Art Therapy Association, the National Eating Disorder Association, and the International Yoga Therapy Association. Kristin is passionate about the healing potential of creative and body-based interventions in traumatic situations, and is committed to creating ways for people in all settings to have access to such treatment. |
Certified Child Life SpecialistCatherine Reilly Boland, MS, CCLS, LMP
Catherine Boland believes that every child deserves the right to live to his/her fullest potential. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, she provides psychosocial and emotional support services to pediatric patients to meet the holistic needs of children impacted by illness, trauma, and hospitalization. She specializes in trauma processing, bereavement services, therapeutic and medical play, pain management, and international program development. Cat has presented globally on her work with psychosocial program development & pharmacological/non-pharmacological pediatric pain management. Cat’s clinical work focuses on stress point coping for infants, children, and adolescents. She works as a Certified Child Life Specialist in the Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center, a level 1 pediatric trauma center, at Children’s National in Washington, D.C., USA. She considers her work serving as a child life consultant for non-profit organizations working to drive psychosocial services for children and families in South Africa and beyond is one of her greatest privileges. In 2014, she worked with the Child Life Council to launch the inaugural International Summit - The State of International Pediatric Psychosocial Services: A Global Perspective on Play and Psychosocial Care for Children in Hospitals. Cat is honored to join the team of dedicated clinicians paving the way to fight the impact of trauma through the power of play! |
Art TherapistAlexis Decosimo, DrPH, ATR, LPCA
Alexis received her Doctorate in Public Health from East Tennessee State University and received her masters in Art Therapy and Clinical Counseling at The George Washington University. Alexis is currently working as an art therapist in Asheville, NC and is the Founder and Executive Director of Playing to Live! She specializes in trauma informed art therapy, program development, and international work. She has worked in Yekepa, Liberia, India, Jamaica, Florence, Italy, and Walter Reed National Military Hospital. She has worked as a clinician in wilderness therapy settings, autism, substance abuse, at risk youth in diverse populations, PTSD, military, and with homeless and displaced persons. She has experienced time and time again how artistic expression, play, and cultural empowerment can facilitate recovery and healing after a traumatic experience, and her passion and career path lies within developing global programs that provide children in low resource communities a safe and healing space for recovering from trauma. |