Darla comes to us with thirty years of mental health experience. Her focus for the past fifteen years is in the area of trauma treatment.
Darla has worked for many residential camps and began her career as a teacher. She worked with children and families as a school counselor for fourteen years. In Austin Texas she was a presenter for Intervention Services as well as group and crisis counselor. St. Vincent Family Centers in Columbus Ohio, was the next workplace where she worked with children and families exhibiting severe behaviors. While with St. Vincent Family centers she became the Partial Hospitalization Program Director and then the agency Clinical Director.
While working as the Clinical Director she was able to explore the new evidenced based treatments being used to treat trauma. Darla then began working in her own private practice and for The Mt. Carmel Crime And Trauma Assistance Program. This grant funded program consisted of work with multiple trauma survivors and their families.
Darla is certified in (EMDR) eye movement desensitizing reprocessing, an evidence based therapy used with trauma survivors. She has also been trained in many other approaches to trauma in the past ten years. Most recently she has focused on equine assisted psychotherapy and learning, becoming EAGALA certified in 2014.
Darla’s other interests include nature and working with children and adults in an outdoor environment. She has been educated by The Coyote Trails School of nature in survival skills in a series of classes that enhanced her work with clients. Her work with clients and nature includes six years as a camp waterfront director and six years as a group leader for children and teens that were suffering the loss of a sibling or parent.