Lisa deFaria has a Masters in Social Work (MSW) and is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Board Certified Diplomat (BCD) in Clinical Social Work. For over 20 years Lisa has been providing quality psychotherapeutic services for adults, parents, teens and children. She has recently relocated from California to Washington State, and offers private therapeutic services on Bainbridge Island. In addition to general psychotherapeutic services, Lisa has a specialty in child development, specific to infants and children, 0-5 with neurodevelopmental challenges and other special needs, including autism spectrum disorders, difficulties with self-regulation, attending and focusing and those with emerging emotional, behavioral and learning challenges. She is a Senior Clinician Certified in DIR (Developmental, Individualized and Relationship-Based) approach, featuring the child and family “Floortime” developmental play therapy model for supporting the growth, development and learning of young children with special needs. Lisa also is Certified in pre- and-post adoption counseling by the Kinship Centers of California. Lisa has trained and worked extensively with Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder’s DIR® (“Developmental, Individualized, Relationship-Based”) and “Floortime” models for the last 18 years. She was on faculty with the “Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders” (ICDL), and was an Associate Professor with the ICDL Graduate PhD program in Early Childhood Development. While in California Lisa was also an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of California Santa Cruz, Extension. Regional community-based services provided while in California included developmental programming consultation and in-service training focusing on pro-active and positive intervention approaches for Early Start/Infant Intervention programs, preschools, elementary/high schools and inclusion programs. These have included: The Children’s Health Council, Palo Alto, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County Early Start, No. Monterey County State Preschools, Monterey County Office of Education and Infant Development Program, Monterey County Family Service Agency, San Jose’s PACE Preschool, and the Pajaro, Carmel and Pacific Grove Unified School Districts, San Jose’s Creekside School and the Soaring Eagle Academy, Riverside, Illinois. A CEITAN grant recipient and former member of the Monterey County Family and Children’s Commission’s First Five Subcommittee on Children with Special Needs, Lisa has long been an advocate for children with challenges and their families and was a recipient of The Special Kids Crusade “Reach for the Stars” award, honoring individuals and agencies that support children with special needs. Lisa graduated with Honors from the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work, and participated in a two-year Post Graduate Fellowship in Clinical Social Work at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center’s Thalians Mental Health Center working in the Family and Children’s Outpatient Clinic and Infant and Early Child Development Centers, in Los Angeles.. Lisa is an accredited member of the International Association for Play Therapy, the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work, the National Association for Social Work and the Washington Society for Clinical Social Workers.