Feeling Heard and Seen: Communication Strategies as a Way to Connectedness

Presenters: Chelsie Moody, PsyD Clinical Psychology Trainee; Adalia Ortiz, Therapeutic Coach Team Lead; Emaya Anbalagan, MD, Medical Director                                                                                      

This was the winning poster at the 2023 START National Training Institute (SNTI) from California START East Bay. Click to view poster or view the 2023 SNTI webpage. 

All live Q&A events are held via Zoom from 1:00-2:00 ET / 12:00-1:00 CT / 11:00-12:00 MT / 10:00-11:00 PT.

Chelsie Moody is the current Clinical Director of the CA START East Bay Program and has been practicing the START model for two years. Chelsie has her Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from California Lutheran University and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. Chelsie has worked primarily with the most vulnerable populations and in a variety of settings, human trafficking survivors, foster youth, IDD, and severe mental health symptoms. She has had a passion for prevention, advocacy for mental health care, community psychoeducation, and a biopsychosocial lens even prior to joining the YAI START team. 

Adalia Ortiz is working to complete her Master of Science in Clinical Counseling with an emphasis in Marriage, Family, and Couples counseling. She has a strong passion for working with parents and caregivers who are facing a variety of challenges. Adalia brings this passion into her systemic support through the CA START East Bay program as the Therapeutic Coach Team Lead. This passion began while she was working as a Certified Nursing Assistant in a hospice center while she was in high school. She met with many families that were grieving the loss of their children due to terminal illnesses. It was during this time that Adalia determined that she wanted to do more for this community as well as the IDD-MH community. She now hopes to complete her schooling to become a MFT with the goal of supporting parents and caregivers of people with IDD and terminal illnesses through trauma informed counseling practices.  

Dr. Emaya Anbalagan is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and has served as the Medical Director of both the CA START San Andreas and CA START East Bay Programs since their inception. She is triple boarded in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. After medical school training in India, she completed her psychiatry residency at the University of Missouri, Columbia, then her fellowship in Child Psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center and the UC Davis MIND institute. She has a strong affinity towards crisis stabilization and residential treatment and her work with START aligns with this interest. Dr. Anbalagan also works at a Substance use residential program at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs hospital and is an Associate Professor (affiliate) with Stanford University, where she teaches psychiatry residents and medical students.