Ana Maria Antunes

Client-Centered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), Non-directive Play Therapist, Humanistic, Trauma-Informed, Emotionally Focused, Attachment-Based, with over 13 years’ experience with adults, children, and their families, working with underprivileged communities and in private practice (in Portugal). “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am then I can change” (Carl Rogers) Clinical Counsellor at Options Community Services, a non-profit organization in Surrey, BC, funded by the MCFD (Family of Children and Family Development), at SACC program (Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre), providing trauma-informed counselling services to children and their families. Following the guidelines of a Sexual Abuse Intervention Program (SAIP), we work on alleviating psycho-social impairment and trauma-related symptoms, reduce the likelihood of adverse long-term consequences of it, and on managing inappropriate sexual behaviors. As an educational and preventative sexual abuse program, our goals are also rooted in reducing subsequent risks from trauma for the child, equipping them with knowledge and self-protection skills to reduce the risk of revictimization.