Leadership, Faculty, & Supervisors
Sentio University’s leadership, staff, faculty, and supervisors share a passion for clinical training and a deep commitment to scholarly innovation.
Administration
Tony Rousmaniere, Psy.D. is President of Sentio University and Executive Director of the Sentio Counseling Center. He is incoming President of Division 29 of the American Psychological Association, and the author of over 20 books on Deliberate Practice and psychotherapy training. He is co-editor of two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). In 2017, he published the widely-cited article in The Atlantic Monthly, “What your therapist doesn’t know”. He is a licensed psychologist in California and Washington.
Alexandre Vaz, Ph.D. is the Director of Training at the Sentio Counseling Center. He is co-editor of two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). He has held multiple committee roles for the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Dr. Vaz is founder and host of Psychotherapy Expert Talks, an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and therapy researchers. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Portugal.
Jordan Harris, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S runs the Sentio Deliberate Practice Coaching program. He is the lead author of the book Deliberate Practice in Multicultural Therapy. Dr. Harris is also co-developer of the Numerapy Model, a coaching program teaching therapists how to leave community based work and start their own solo counseling practices. Dr. Harris runs a solo counseling practice (Harris Couples Counseling, Marriage Therapy, & Private Practice Coaching) in Northwest Arkansas where he specializes in working with couples.
Jason Brand, LCSW is a Senior Deliberate Practice Trainer at Sentio. He is a podcaster, husband and father who works primarily with couples and men. He is certified in PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy) and hosts The Human Nurture Podcast that explores the learning process of becoming a couples therapist. He also facilitates Fathers’ Forum, a men's group for fathers of young children (birth to 5 years old). Jason lives in Berkeley with his wife of twenty years, his teenage daughters and their two dogs.
Mikaela Abundez is the Director of Student Services for Sentio University and Clinic Director for Sentio Counseling Washington. She holds a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Touro University Worldwide. She is trained in a diverse range of therapeutic modalities, including Emotionally Focused Therapy, Schema Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, among others. Mikaela has prior experience with mental health start-ups, including her work with Foresight Mental Health, where she managed several clinics throughout California.
Faculty & Clinical Supervisors
MacKenzie Stuart is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who works with adults, couples, partners, and families. She specializes in nontraditional relationship structures, including polyamory and other forms of consensual nonmonogamy, as well as chronic depression and suicidality. Her other clinical interests include psychosis, psychopharmacology and drugs, LGBTQIA2-S and GNC/non-binary communities, kink and BDSM practices, and sex work. MacKenzie enjoys psychodynamic case conceptualization, the enneagram, biofeedback, narrative and solution-focused interventions, and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) skills. She is a member of core faculty at The Wright Institute in Berkeley and leads a private practice in Alameda.
Naomi Tabak is a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY 26153) and Director of the psychology training clinic in the University of California, Irvine's Department of Psychological Science. Dr. Tabak specializes in working with adults with depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, and applies an open and culturally responsive approach to her clinical work. She utilizes evidence-based treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and mindfulness-based approaches, and is also a registered provider of Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD.
Antoinette Babers is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Ms. Babers is the Director of Clinical Training at Azusa Pacific University’s Inland Empire Regional Center. In addition to being a mentor to her students, Ms. Babers helps her students gain practicum sites where they learn and experience what it’s like to work in the field of Marriage and Family Therapy. Ms. Babers has authored curriculum to assist children in learning appropriate social interactions and anger management. She has also authored curriculum to assist children and parents going through the divorce process. Ms. Babers has been a therapist for 15 years. She has worked with children, families, couples, and individuals suffering from a variety of mental disorders. Presently, Ms. Babers runs her own private practice, Healing Waters Counseling Center, in Riverside, CA.
Margaret Petersen MFT, Certified EFT Therapist and EFT Supervisor in -training, specializes in relationships and all the many ways relationships can become so tricky to navigate at times with individuals, couples, and families in her private practice in Pleasanton, CA. Margaret has served on the Board of the Northern California Community for EFT (NCCEFT) since 2012 and is the Speaker Liaison for their Quarterly and Annual events. She has served on the Diversity Committee and Scholarship Committee of NCCEFT and has presented topics on EFT, couples, and sexuality to the community. Margaret truly enjoys helping clinicians become their most authentic therapeutic selves and she is honored to become part of the Sentio community!
Madeleine Miller-Bottome, Ph.D. is an attending clinical psychologist at Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center in the Department of Psychiatry. She specializes in relational psychodynamic psychotherapy, attachment-based interventions, including Mentalization Based Treatment for Children (MBT-C), and therapeutic alliance-focused training. Dr. Miller-Bottome received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York. She completed her pre-doctoral fellowship at University of California San Francisco Child and Adolescent Services Multicultural Clinical Training Program and her post-doctoral fellowship in Women’s Health at Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center.
Michael Mikulski, LMFT currently works at the Feeling Good Institute, as the Pre-Licensed Clinician Manager, recruiting new graduates to work in an elite, evidence-based private practice, with the goal of making a seamless transition to their own private practice. Michael has worked both in private practice and in community mental health throughout his career, with various positions, such as Director of Adult Services for adults with chronic and severe mental-health illnesses, and as Director of Training recruiting students in graduate school for practicum placements. Michael is AAMFT Approved Supervisor and is a Level 3 TEAM-CBT Certified therapist.
Sharon Mead is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of California. She specializes in couples therapy, couples counseling, marriage therapy, marriage counseling, individual therapy, and psychotherapy, multicultural/intercultural couples. She has advanced training Emotionally Focused Therapy and Level 2 training Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Before becoming a therapist, she worked for 13 years in software development and management in a large Bay Area technology company
Layla Inés Davis is a bilingual (Spanish) and bicultural Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of California. In addition to her work as a mental health provider in an outpatient psychiatric clinic, she performs psychiatric evaluations in the emergency department and teaches child development at the community college level. She is a Feedback Informed Treatment Certified Trainer and a Cognitive Processing Therapy Provider (listed on CPTforPTSD.com).
Jason Brand, LCSW is a Senior Deliberate Practice Trainer at Sentio. He is a podcaster, husband and father who works primarily with couples and men. He is certified in PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy) and hosts The Human Nurture Podcast that explores the learning process of becoming a couples therapist. He also facilitates Fathers’ Forum, a men's group for fathers of young children (birth to 5 years old). Jason lives in Berkeley with his wife of twenty years, his teenage daughters and their two dogs.
Cristina Biasetto, LCSW is the clinical supervisor and manager of the University of California San Francisco Trauma Recovery Center, which provides trauma-focused therapy and case management to survivors of interpersonal violence in San Francisco, CA. For about ten years, as a trilingual clinician (Spanish, Italian, and English), her clinical work has focused on the assessment and treatment of severe trauma, particularly among survivors who have experienced migration. At the University of California San Francisco, she is also the Mental Health Director of the Health and Human Rights Initiative, which works to expand access to pro-bono forensic psychological evaluations for asylum seekers.
Jamie Bachman, LCSW, Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor, Certified AEDP Therapist, has been in clinical practice for 20 years, and has provided clinical supervision for 15 years. He has served on the Diversity Committee of the International Center for Excellence in EFT (ICEEFT). He also served for eight years on the adjunct faculty at UC Berkeley’s MSW program, where he taught Family Therapy and Theory in Practice courses. He was also on the faculty of the Psychotherapy Institute’s (TPI) Supervision Studies Program, and was a supervisor for TPI’s Post-Graduate Training Program. For TPI he has taught on Attachment Theory, Couples Therapy, and the supervision of Couples and Family Therapy.
Rocky Allemandi is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Santa Cruz, California. He has spent his career in the public mental health system as a clinician, clinical supervisor and program manager. His focus has been on proving school based mental health services and supporting youth and families involved in the foster care system. He is passionate about providing high quality behavioral health services to adults, children, youth and families.
Dr. Sheila Addison, LMFT, has worked with the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities for nearly 25 years as an affirming couple and family therapist. She offers supervision and mentoring as an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, and became a Certified Gottman Therapist in 2020. She is also Executive Director of Margin to Center Therapy, where she supports members of equity-deserving groups in earning licensure and launching private practices. She offers Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion services, including the Ally Skills Workshop, as Margin to Center Consulting. She is also core faculty in the Antioch University Couple and Family Therapy program.
Joel Jin, Ph.D. received his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from Fuller’s Graduate School of Psychology. He is as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Seattle Pacific University with over three years of experience in educational delivery and course development. His subject expertise includes psychology of Asian American populations, perfectionism, and mindfulness-based interventions. Dr. Jin is a co-author of the book Deliberate Practice in Multicultural Therapy.
Julia is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from the Bay Area. She works primarily with anxiety, depression, trauma and relationship issues. Julia uses short-term dynamic and emotion-focused frameworks to help guide her work. Julia also specializes in ketamine-assisted therapy and psychedelic integration. Julia is so happy to be a part of the Sentio team!
Advisory Board
Professor and Chair of the Human Development and Family Studies Department at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan
Co-Director of the Michigan State Couple and Family Therapy Clinic in East Lansing, Michigan
Associate Professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Department at Utah State University in Logan, Utah
Guest Lecturers
Dr. Terjesen is a leading expert in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. He is Past-President of the Division of International Psychology of the American Psychological Association and was program director of the School Psychology program at St. John’s University.
Dr. Prout is an expert in child and adolescent therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and Deliberate Practice. She is co-chair of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Fellowship Committee and co-chair of the Research Committee of APA’s Division 39.
Dr. McMain is a leading expert in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and runs the Borderline Personality Clinic at CAMH. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and is co-author on a Deliberate Practice book for DBT.
Dr. Bate runs the Attachment and Psychotherapy Process Lab at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She is an expert in child and adolescent therapy and treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMAD).
Dr. Husby is a specialist in clinical psychology, psychotherapy supervisor, and head of the clinic at Favne Psychological Assistance in Oslo, Norway. He is on the governance committee of the International Deliberate Practice Society.
Dr. Farrell is an expert in Schema Therapy and Coordinator for Training and Certification on the Executive Board of the International Society for Schema Therapy. She developed and directed an inpatient schema therapy program for borderline personality disorder.
Dr. Levenson is a leading teacher and supervisor of Brief Dynamic Therapy. She is the author of more than 75 papers, two books, and three professional videos.
Dr. Ernst is a leading expert in Motivational Interviewing (MI) training, supervision, and research, with a specialty in MI analytic training. Dr. Ernst serves in leadership roles at the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).
Dr. Behary is a founding fellow and supervisor of The Academy of Cognitive Therapy in New York. She was the President of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) from 2010-2014.
Dr. Boswell is an expert in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy who publishes extensively in the areas of psychotherapy process and outcome and measurement-based care. He is president of the North American Chapter of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.
Dr. Manuel serves in leadership roles at the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). She is a leading expert in Motivational Interviewing (MI) training, supervision, and research, with a specialty in MI scientific coding.
Dr. Rosén is a clinical psychologist in private practice, and is an associate supervisor and teacher at the University of Umeå, Sweden. She is on the governance committee of the International Deliberate Practice Society.
Sentio Board
Governing Board Member
Owen Gintis is an entrepreneur who has been the owner, primary investor, and Board Member of a pioneering solar energy company in California since 2016. Mr. Gintis has experience with investment monitoring, information technology, and organizational growth and restructuring with a focus on prioritizing ethical business practices.
Governing Board Member
Justin Norris, J.D. has more than 15 years of higher education experience serving in student affairs and fundraising roles. Justin currently serves as Portfolio Executive Leader for CampusWorks, Inc., where he leads strategic planning and digital transformation initiatives for colleges and universities across the country. In addition to his current role, he also volunteers as a trainer with the National Coalition Building Institute that helps engage high schools, colleges, and universities in prejudice reduction and equity work.