Clinicians
FAN Mentors & Trainers
Administration
Haruko Watanabe, MA, LMHC, IMH-E® is the Clinical Director at Cooper House and an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health clinician. Haruko identifies as a cisgendered woman and an immigrant from Japan, who is committed to promoting healing-centered work in communities and organizations through building relationships. Over the last 20+ years, Haruko has worked with Early Supports for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT), early care and learning, child-welfare, and community mental health systems in King County, seeking to understand the impact of adversity on early relationships and advocating for system-level transformation on behalf of young children families. Her clinical work and workforce development efforts have been influenced by her lived experiences and teaching from the communities she has served, many of whom are low-income and families of color, as well as her ongoing learning from her ancestors, mentors, and colleagues. In addition to her work at Cooper House, Haruko trains Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health clinicians across Washington State; she is a Leadership Fellow and an instructor at University of Washington Barnard Center on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Advanced Clinical Training Program and a Washington State trainer on Child-Parent Psychotherapy.
Tobey Davis, MOT, OTR/L began his career as a Special Education Peace Corps Volunteer in Jordan and later worked as a therapeutic preschool teacher at Childhaven. After earning his Master of Occupational Therapy from the University of Washington in 2017, Tobey worked in early intervention, outpatient pediatric care, and as an evaluator at the UW Center on Human Development and Disability. Tobey specializes in infant and early childhood mental health and the DIR®/Floortime model. His practice is grounded in service to marginalized communities and shaped by his lived experience as a member of the queer community. He is conversational in Spanish and Arabic.
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Ursula Hildebrandt, PhD, LICSW, IMHS-E®️ is an infant and early childhood mental health therapist with Cooper House. She has been in the infant mental health field as a researcher and educator since 1997 and began working directly with families with young children in 2015. Ursula earned her doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Washington (UW) in 2003, including a Certificate in Infant Mental Health and her Masters in Social Work from UW in 2017. Prior to working for Cooper House, Ursula worked for Wellspring Family Services and Kindering Center. T: (206) 402-3168.
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Laura Jendusa earned her Master of Occupational Therapy at Maryville University in 2010. Since then, she has received extensive training and mentoring in the DIR/FCD model (aka Floortime), where she has focused her study and practice supporting relationships of caregivers and young children. As an infant mental health occupational therapist, Laura understands one’s emotional experiences and their physical, sensory and motor experiences do not develop separately. While orienting to the interconnected nature of development, Laura is honored to partner and support young children and their caregivers when challenges arise. Laura is a fellow with the UC-Davis Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship and a Trainer in the DIR Model. She enjoys providing trainings and reflective supervision for individuals and groups.
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Tiffany Kingsley, MA, LMHC, IMH-E® has worked with children and families in various capacities for over a decade. In 2016 she graduated from Seattle University with her Master’s in Psychology. She began her clinical work as a Child and Family Therapist in community mental health. Prior to joining Cooper House, her recent work was as an Infant Mental Health Therapist in Early Intervention, where she provided family support and counseling to children aged birth-three. Her experience includes promoting healthy social emotional development to children coping with developmental delays and trauma, as well as, proving support to families transitioning home from the NICU.
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Sylvia Kurin, MSW, LICSW, IMHS-E®️ started her clinical work in Uruguay in community mental health and later continued in the U.S. She worked for Consejo Counseling, Center on Human Development and Disability, Wellspring, Navos, and Boyer Children's Clinic. She was trained as a Clinical Psychologist in Uruguay with a psychodynamic theoretical orientation. She is a graduate of the certificate program in Infant Mental Health, and completed her Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. She provides bilingual (Spanish/English) psychotherapy services. Additionally, Sylvia provides reflective consultation and is a FAN Trainer. T: (206) 402-3972
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Diane Lostrangio, MSW, LICSW, IMHM-C®️ began her clinical career in community mental health and then went on to work with families formed through adoption. In 2007, she entered into private practice providing pre and post adoption services for children and families. Her post graduate training includes completion of Adoption and Foster Care Therapy and Advanced Clinical Practice Certificates as well as training in Infant Mental Health. In addition to working directly with young children and their families, Diane provides reflective consultation and is a FAN Trainer. T: (206) 799-4736
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Kristin McNally, MSR, OTR/L, IMHM-C® earned her Master’s in Occupational Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2000. She has since practiced as a pediatric occupational therapist, specializing in sensory integration, the DIR® Model (Floortime), and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Kristin is endorsed by the Washington Association for Infant Mental Health as an Infant Mental Health Mentor-Clinical. She provides reflective consultation for birth-to-three providers and is a Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) Trainer. Kristin is an assistant faculty member of the Profectum Foundation, where she provides training and mentoring in the DIR model. Kristin is driven to support early childhood development and to empower children and parents in their interactions through child directed play. T: (206) 402-3168 x 111
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Lisa Mennet, PhD, LMHC, IMHM-C is the Cooper House owner and clinical director emerita. She began her clinical career at Ryther Child Center, then studied at the Center on Infant Mental Health at the UW, and was later a clinical instructor there. She’s taught infant mental health principles at the UW schools of Social Work and Nursing, and for the Washington DSHS. Lisa earned a certificate in child psychoanalytic psychotherapy from SPSI, and a doctorate in Infant Mental Health from UW. Her particular area of interest is the impact of trauma on early relationships.
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Tess Sotelo, MAOT, OTR/L earned her Masters of Arts in Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California in 2016. She has since been in practice as a pediatric occupational therapist, most recently at Mosaic Children’s Therapy. Tess specializes in the DIR®/Floortime model. Enthusiastic about working with both parents and children, Tess mobilizes children’s functional emotional developmental capacities with respect to their individual differences in sensory processing, motor planning, cognition and social emotional development. T: (206) 402-3168
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Rebeca Valeri, MSW, LICSW, IMHS-E®️ has dedicated her work to serving infants, children, and families. She started her clinical work at Youth Eastside Services focusing on early intervention with parents and young children ages 0-3. She continued her training in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health while working at Wellspring Family Services. Rebeca most recently worked at Bellevue School District, which has grown her skills to working in school settings. She completed her Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. She provides bilingual (Spanish/English) psychotherapy services. T: (206) 402-3168 x112
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Nicole Wiggins, MA, LMHC is a psychotherapist with extensive experience working with very young children. She holds a Master’s degree in Communicative Disorders and previously worked as a pediatric speech language pathologist for 12 years. Nicole is a graduate of the certificate program in Infant Mental Health at the University of Washington, and earned a Master’s degree in Psychology from Seattle University. She is currently in training to become a psychoanalyst at Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society. Nicole sees infants, children and adults in her practice and provides reflective consultation. T: (206) 669-6309
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FAN Mentors & Trainers:
FAN trainings are co-facilitated by two trainers. Concepts learned in training are integrated into a participant’s unique work with the support of a FAN mentor in the 6-7 months between Level 1 and Level 2 FAN trainings.
Emily A. Anderson, MA, LMFT, IMHS-E®️ has worked with infants, very young children, and families in various capacities since 2002. While completing her Master's degree in Psychology, her focus was on early intervention with families considered to be at-risk, including adolescent parents and their babies. Prior to joining Cooper House, her most recent work was as a Clinician for the SJCC's Early Childhood School, providing ongoing relationship-based clinical support to children age 0-5 and their families, and implementing professional development for faculty and staff. She has training in Infant Mental Health, as well as expertise with young children with pervasive developmental delays. In addition to providing psychotherapy, Emily offers reflective consultation and is a Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) Trainer. T: (206) 420-3804
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La Tonia Bussell-Packard is a queer Black femme who supports pregnant and parenting families as a traditional midwife, doula, and peer mental health specialist. They are currently a FAN mentor at Cooper House and a Peer Support Specialist at Perinatal Support Washington. La Tonia began working with families in 2016 as a doula and childbirth educator and quickly learned that parents and young children were missing and craving support for all the emotional changes and challenges that arise when parenting babies and young children. La Tonia has been supporting and advocating for communities and families for the past ten years. In all their roles, La Tonia uses an anti-oppressive and social justice lens and is especially focused on serving BIPOC and QTPOC communities. They have an educational background in anthropology and received their Bachelor of Arts and Science from University of Washington and trained as a midwife at Birthwise Midwifery School.
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Lynne Creed
IMH-E® (IFA) earned her BA in Fine Art from the Intercontinental University in London, England. She is the program manager of the ParentChild+ program in East King County where she supports staff and families through a parent coaching, strength-based home visiting model. In addition to working directly with families and children she also co-creates content, facilitates workshops and mentors professionals through courses that center relationships and social justice in infant and early childhood mental health through her work with Best Starts for Kids Workshops. Lynne is an indigenous Alaskan native and enjoys spending her free time making traditional native art, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
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Megan Jimenez IMH-E® (IFS, ERS) Before coming to Cooper House, Megan was a home visitor and supervisor in the Early Head Start model for over five years. In that role, she was introduced to the FAN and found it to be an anchor in challenging times (April 2020 anyone?). Megan believes that attuned reflective support is necessary to make work in this field more sustainable. She has the privilege of sitting with parents of infants through her Fussy Baby work, and continually witnesses how listening, being with, and thinking with are powerful and impactful ways of “doing”. Outside of work Megan enjoys reading, playing non-competitive pickleball, and being on/in/near water with friends and family.
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Betty Peralta, MIT, MS-MHC, IMHS-E®️ is a mental health and education specialist supporting parents and professionals in learning healing responses to children's hard behaviors. In addition to training on the FAN with Cooper House, Betty is faculty for the NeuroRelational Framework, a trauma-informed, equitable approach to healing toxic stress and building resilience. Betty received her BA from The Evergreen State College in 1992, her Masters In Teaching from Seattle University in 1999, and her Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling in 2014.
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Gina Veloni, PHD, MN, RN, IMHS, IMHM-C®️ is a FAN Mentor for Cooper House. Gina has provided IMH and RSC training and consultation to various home visiting programs and communities such as NFP, PAT, Parent-Child+, ECEAP, EHS, HS, tribal home visiting groups, supervisor groups, early intervention providers and mental health professionals. She has been running her own consulting business since 2015, and prior to that worked as a Program Manager - Nurse-Family Partnership through Snohomish Health District and ChildStrive.
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Meyleen Velasquez, PHD, LICSW, PMH-C, RPT-S, IMHM-C®️ is an immigrant Latinx psychotherapist specializing in perinatal and infant mental health. Meyleen began her career in 2006 at a community mental health center and began working with families in 2010. She's served families and young children in various settings such as in-home, shelter, and the dependency system. Meyleen's first infant mental health training was the Fussy Baby Network in 2012. The training changed the way she intervened with families and ignited a love for infant mental health. Her private practice, Hummingbird Counseling PPLC, supports women, infants, and clinicians working from an anti- oppressive framework. She is a trainer, author, and consultant.
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Susan Wendel, MS, OTR/L is a Cooper House trainer for the FAN model. A pediatric occupational therapist with over 30 years of experience, Sue is experienced in using the FAN model with families. In addition to her role with Cooper House, Susan holds a position at the UW Center on Human Development and Disability and is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, OT Program.
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Administration
Nikki Do, BSW is the Administrative Coordinator at Cooper House. Nikki graduated from Seattle University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. They have 4+ years of experience working with children and youth in an educational and nonprofit setting. She is passionate about mental health and ensuring that marginalized communities have the resources to thrive and flourish.
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Lisa Foss, MA oversees the FAN training program and the reflective consultation program at Cooper House. After working for over 20 years at nonprofits (with a brief stint as a public school teacher), she has found her people and her place at Cooper House. She believes strongly in supporting people to become the best versions of themselves. She is especially passionate about supporting women and children, which makes her an excellent fit at Cooper House (and Cooper House an excellent fit for her).
Her jam is organizing, whether she’s organizing events, people, or her closet. (Just don’t ask her to organize your garage. She has her limits.) She spends most of her workday on Zoom and in Excel, but she likes people and loves math, so that works out great.
When she’s not at Cooper House, you’ll find her on a mountain, on a bike, or hanging out with her teenage daughter, her husband, her two cats, and maybe even her husband’s dog.
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Paula Hardy is the Client Accounts Manager at Cooper House. She has a multi-faceted background in information technology, claims and insurance billing, program development and customer service, having worked in a variety of healthcare environments prior to joining the staff at Cooper House. Her focus is on creating efficient systems that support, promote and enhance clinical resources for families. She can assist you with information regarding Cooper House and its services in addition to any billing questions you may have. T: (206) 946-8604
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Alda Scebbi, MA is the Senior FAN Program Coordinator at Cooper House. Alda earned her Bachelor’s from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master’s in International Law and Human Rights from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. Since 2014, Alda has worked in positions that gave her experience in client relations, sales, and event planning. Alda made a career change into the social innovation sector when she joined our team in 2019 in order to live out her goal to act as a passionate advocate for women and children. In her current role, Alda provides support for FAN trainings and supports operations of Cooper House. T: (206) 402-3168 x122