Staff

Stefani Rios, AMFT

Stefani Rios (She/Her/Hers) is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist at the Child Therapy Institute’s East Bay Area office located in Antioch. She has been working with children at the Child Therapy Institute since 2019. Stefani was born and raised in the East Bay Area of California. She identifies as Latina/Mexican-American and is a first generation college graduate in her family. She received her Master’s degree in Holistic Counseling Psychology with a specialization in Transpersonal Psychology at John F. Kennedy University. She has experience working with children, adolescents, and adults in various community mental health settings for over the past nine years. Stefani utilizes an integrative, client-centered approach when engaging in play therapy with her child clients. She has experience providing therapy services in-person and virtually via telehealth services. Stefani has experience working with attachment issues, trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, low self-esteem, and neurodiversity. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors, gardening, spending time with her pets, and engaging in the creative arts through music, singing, drawing, painting, and dancing.  

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”-Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)

Ian Shaw-Zak, AMFT

Ian Shaw-Zak is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist working with the Child Therapy Institute in San Pablo. He has a Masters Degree in Holistic Counseling – Somatic from John F Kennedy University. He is also an ISMETA registered somatic movement therapist and educator specializing in early non-verbal learning and trained in the Hakomi Method of mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy. Lifelong movement training including qigong, yoga, dance, a BSc in kinesiology, and Dynamic Embodiment™ resulted in serving highly sensitive people with chronic pain and injuries until studying the body led to psychology. Ian’s work with children, families, and adults grounds creativity, play, and relationship with a focus on developing stability, self-regulation, and functional skills. Some topics of experience include affect regulation, body-mind connection, attachment, trauma, and self-image.

Greer Straatsma, Trainee

Providing counseling for children continues to be both an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Prior to this, I had career experience as an elementary school art teacher and a meditation
teacher. I received my masters in holistic psychotherapy from John F. Kennedy University. As a
human being my sense of identity lies in being a creative person and artist. I feel able to use
these abilities when being present with children and supporting them to explore and express
their true natures.

Sherie Shughart: Office Manager

Lucelle Hoefnagels, Billing and Personal Manager

Lucelle was there at the very beginning of CTIM, 30 years ago, now CTI.  She had left to go to university and pursue other activities, and then came back to the fold. When not working with the wonderful people of CTI, she is an independent bookkeeper for a varied category of businesses. She also very much enjoys spinning, weaving, riding her bicycle, and reading.

Maria Lentzou, CTI-Graduate

Maria Lentzou is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as a licensed psychologist from Greece (2004). She speaks fluent English, Greek, and Spanish, and she holds an MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from CIIS (2017). She has been working with kids as an expressive teaching artist and psycho-educator since 2002. Through their play, children taught her how to understand and appreciate their world that is different from the adults’ world. Now, with her training in play therapy from the Child Therapy Institute, she is grateful to help your child to navigate with more ease the challenges of the adults’ reality in order to recover their joy, and to enhance their academic, social and emotional wellbeing.

Maria provides school-based counseling services at preschools in Berkeley and offers individual counseling and ongoing psychotherapy for children at the offices in El Cerrito and in San Francisco.

You can learn more about Maria at https://www.marialentzou.net/about

Maria Lentzou es una terapeuta asociada matrimonial y familiar, así como una psicóloga licenciada de Grecia (2004). Habla inglés, griego y español con fluidez, y tiene una maestría en Terapia de Artes Expresivas de CIIS (2017). Ha estado trabajando con niños como docente de artes expresivas y psico-educadora desde 2002. A través de su juego, los niños le enseñaron a comprender y a apreciar su mundo que es diferente del mundo de los adultos. Ahora, con su entrenamiento en terapia de juego del Instituto de Terapia Infantil, está agradecida de poder ayudar a su hijo a navegar con más facilidad los desafíos de la realidad de los adultos para recuperar su alegría y su bienestar académico, social y emocional.

María ofrece servicios de asesoramiento escolar en preescolares en Berkeley y ofrece asesoramiento individual y psicoterapia continua para niños en las oficinas de El Cerrito y San Francisco.

Usted puede encontrar más información sobre Maria en https://www.marialentzou.net/about