Eliana Gil

Last updated
Eliana Gil
Born (1948-04-24) 24 April 1948 (age 75)
Alma materCalifornia Graduate School of Family Psychology, San Rafael
Known forFamily and child therapy, with a focus on trauma and abuse
Scientific career
InstitutionsGil Institute for Trauma and Recovery
Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy

Eliana Gil (born 24 April 1948), [1] is a lecturer, writer, and clinician of marriage, family and child. She is on the board of a number of professional counselling organizations that use play and art therapies, and she is the former president of the Association for Play Therapy (APT). [2]

Contents

Gil is the senior partner of the Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education in Fairfax, Virginia. She is also the director of Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy based in northern Virginia. [3] [4] [ non-primary source needed ]

Early life

Eliana Gil is originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador. [3] Gil's parents, Manuel and Eugenia, were both born in Ecuador. When Gil was 14 the family moved to Washington, DC. After high school the family moved again to San Francisco. [5] [ non-primary source needed ]

Education

Gil attended the California Graduate School of Family Psychology in San Rafael where she gained her doctorate in family therapy. [2] She did her Art Therapy training at George Washington University. [5] [ non-primary source needed ] She went on be a registered Play Therapy Supervisor, a registered Art Therapist, and a licensed Marriage, Family, Child Counselor. [2]

Early career

Gil has worked in the field of child abuse prevention and treatment since 1973. [6] Gil worked as a Marriage, Family and Child Counselor (MFCC) in California and then moved to the East Coast where she became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Virginia. She went on to work for the San Francisco Child Abuse Council initially as a secretary, then as an Administrative Assistant, an Assistant Director and finally, as a Director of two programs in Contra Costa County: The Costa County Child Abuse Council and Gil and Associates. [5] [ non-primary source needed ]

Gil then moved first to Maryland and worked with Children's Mental Health, and then moved again to work at the Inova Kellar Center and Childhelp Children's Center in Virginia. [5] [ non-primary source needed ]

Later career

Gil is the senior partner of the Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education in Fairfax, Virginia which provides therapy, consulting, and training services. [3] [7] Her partner in the private practice is Myriam Goldin. [8]

The Institute includes the Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy, where Gil acts as director, provides training sessions on family play therapy and specialized therapy for youths who have experienced childhood trauma. [2]

She has written widely on the subject of child abuse, family play therapy, culturally informed play therapy, and related topics, and produced a series of educational videotapes in the area of psychotherapy. [2]

Other roles she has held include working as an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Tech’s Family Therapy Department. [2] [9] She has also served on the board of directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and the National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse. Gil is also a former president of the Association for Play Therapy. [2]

As media consultant

Gil has been consulted by a number of media outlets over the years including the San Francisco Chronicle [10] and KCET. [11]

Interviews

Timothy Dwyer interviewed Gil as part of an article in 2001 for the Journal of Clinical Activities, Assignments & Handouts in Psychotherapy Practice. The article also featured interviews with Richard C. Schwartz and Bill O'Hanlon. [12]

Gil was also interviewed at the end of 2013 by Catherine Ford Sori and Sheryl Schnur for The Family Journal . The interview was printed in two parts, part I in January 2014, [13] and part II in April 2014. [2]

Personal life

In 2014 Gil announced that she would be relocating to Florida and make use of technology to reduce her clinical work and travel schedule. The change was to enable her to focus on her 96-year-old mother.

Gil has four grandchildren and her hobbies include playing tennis. [6] [ non-primary source needed ]

Bibliography

Books

Chapters in books

Journal articles

Related Research Articles

Development of sexuality is a part of the development and maturation of children. It includes a range of sensory, emotional, and consequent sexual activities that may occur before or during early puberty, but before full sexual maturity is established. The development of child sexuality and the perception of child sexuality by adults is influenced by social and cultural aspects. The concept of child sexuality also played an important role in psychoanalysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical abuse</span> Medical condition

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury, trauma, bodily harm or other physical suffering to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. Physical abuse is a type of abuse that involves physical violence, such as hitting, kicking, pushing, biting, choking, throwing objects, and using weapons. Physical abuse also includes using restraints or confinement, such as tying someone up, locking them in a room, or restraining them with drugs or alcohol. Physical abuse can also include withholding basic needs, such as food, clothing, or medical care. In addition to the physical injuries caused by physical abuse, it can also lead to psychological trauma, such as fear, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Physical abuse can occur in any relationship, including those between family members, partners, and caregivers. It can also occur in institutional settings, such as nursing homes, schools, and prisons. Physical abuse can have long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences, and can even be fatal.

Psychological trauma is an emotional response caused by severe distressing events that are outside the normal range of human experiences, such as experiencing violence, rape, or a terrorist attack. The event must be understood by the affected person as directly threatening the affected person or their loved ones with death, severe bodily injury, or sexual violence; indirect exposure, such as from watching television news, may be extremely distressing and can produce an involuntary and possibly overwhelming physiological stress response, but does not produce trauma per se.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child abuse</span> Maltreatment or neglect of a child

Child abuse is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with.

Day-care sex-abuse hysteria was a moral panic that occurred primarily during the 1980s and early 1990s, and featured charges against day-care providers accused of committing several forms of child abuse, including Satanic ritual abuse. The collective cases are often considered a part of the Satanic panic. A 1982 case in Kern County, California, United States, first publicized the issue of day-care sexual abuse, and the issue figured prominently in news coverage for almost a decade. The Kern County case was followed by cases elsewhere in the United States, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and various European countries.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a stress-related mental disorder generally occurring in response to complex traumas, i.e., commonly prolonged or repetitive exposures to a series of traumatic events, within which individuals perceive little or no chance to escape.

Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence, that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by professional mental health associations.

Attachment therapy is a pseudoscientific child mental health intervention intended to treat attachment disorders. It is found primarily in the United States, and much of it is centered in about a dozen clinics in Evergreen, Colorado, where Foster Cline, one of the founders, established his clinic in the 1970s.

Francine Shapiro was an American psychologist and educator who originated and developed eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a form of psychotherapy for resolving the symptoms of traumatic and other disturbing life experiences.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.

Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assault against a small child, whereas sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults.

Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse, witnessing abuse of a sibling or parent, or having a mentally ill parent. These events have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts and can have negative, lasting effects on health and well-being such as unsocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep disturbances. Similarly, children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child sexual abuse</span> Form of child abuse

Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.

Children's Institute Inc. (CII) is a nonprofit organization that provides services to children and families healing from the effects of family and community violence within Los Angeles. Founded in 1906 by Minnie Barton, Los Angeles's first female probation officer, the organization was first designed to help troubled young women who found themselves adrift in Los Angeles." The organization has since expanded its services to at-risk youth in Los Angeles who are affected by child abuse, neglect domestic and gang violence as well as poverty. CII is a multi-service organization that combines evidence-based clinical services, youth development programs and family support services designed to address the whole child and entire family. The organization provides various forms of trauma support—including therapy, intervention services, parenting workshops, early childcare programs and other support services offered in English, Spanish and Korean.

Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.

Kathleen 'Kee' MacFarlane is an American social worker known for involvement in the high-profile McMartin preschool trial in the 1980s. She was the Director of Children's Institute International. She developed the concept of the anatomically correct doll for children to use during interviews concerning abuse and played a significant role in the McMartin trial. MacFarlane has been criticized for her methods of interrogating small children. Charges against the defendants eventually were dropped.

Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) is a mental health treatment model for children and adolescents who have been exposed to trauma, defined as experiencing, witnessing, or confronting "an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others". TST focuses on the child's emotional and behavioral needs as well as the environments where the child lives (home, school, community). The treatment model includes four components (skill-based psychotherapy, home and community-based care, advocacy, and psychopharmacology) that are fully described in a published manual. A clinical trial showed that TST is effective in improving the mental health and well-being of children who have been traumatized. TST has also been successfully replicated.

Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy or counselling that aims at addressing the needs of children and adolescents with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other difficulties related to traumatic life events. This treatment was developed and proposed by Drs. Anthony Mannarino, Judith Cohen, and Esther Deblinger in 2006. The goal of TF-CBT is to provide psychoeducation to both the child and non-offending caregivers, then help them identify, cope, and re-regulate maladaptive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Research has shown TF-CBT to be effective in treating childhood PTSD and with children who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events, including but not limited to physical or sexual victimization, child maltreatment, domestic violence, community violence, accidents, natural disasters, and war. More recently, TF-CBT has been applied to and found effective in treating complex posttraumatic stress disorder.

Sexual trauma therapy is medical and psychological interventions provided to survivors of sexual violence aiming to treat their physical injuries and cope with mental trauma caused by the event. Examples of sexual violence include any acts of unwanted sexual actions like sexual harassment, groping, rape, and circulation of sexual content without consent.

Joy D. Osofsky is a clinical and developmental psychologist, known for her research on infant mental health, how parents nurture their infants and children, and the repercussions that follow exposure to traumatic events and violence. Some of her notable work has examined the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina, experiences of children raised in broken households, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities. Osofsky is employed as a Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Health at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, and she is Head of the Division of Pediatric Mental Health at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Osofsky holds the Barbara Lemann Professorship of Child Welfare at LSU Health New Orleans.

References

  1. "Gil, Eliana". Library of Congress. Retrieved 18 July 2014. CIP t.p. (Eliana Gil) data sheet (b. 4-24-48)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sori, Catherine F.; Schnur, Sheryl (April 2014). "Integrating a neurosequential approach in the treatment of traumatized children: an interview With Eliana Gil, part II". The Family Journal. 22 (2): 251–257. doi:10.1177/1066480713514945. S2CID   143891141. Pdf version, December 2013. Archived 2014-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 Gil, Eliana; Shaw, Jennifer A. "Cover Graphic View larger Working with Children with Sexual Behavior Problems - author biography". Guilford Press. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  4. "Biography". Dr. Eliana Gil. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Eliana Gil". LinkedIn. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Welcome". Dr. Eliana Gil. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  7. "Eliana Gil, Ph.D., RPT-S, ATR". Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  8. "Our team". Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  9. "VT Faculty Authors Recognition 2006 | Liberal Arts and Human Sciences". Virginia Tech, University Libraries. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  10. Lempinen, Edward W. (21 September 1987). "Why Molesters of Young Children Often Go Free". San Francisco Chronicle. p. A2. Archived from the original on 15 July 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2014. Quote: Eliana Gil, a Pleasant Hill psychologist... "I think people are targeting these young children (for sexual abuse) because they know the kids won't be able to qualify in court." Gil ... said a victim in one Marin County sex-abuse case was barred from court because she believed in Santa Claus. That naivete destroyed her legal credibility.
  11. Eliana Gil (28 April 1991). Healing Sexual Abuse (Television production). Lifeguides. Los Angeles, California: KCET. Event occurs at 7.00pm.
  12. Dwyer, Timothy F. (July 2001). "Interviews with Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, Eliana Gil, PhD, and Bill O'Hanlon, MS". Journal of Clinical Activities, Assignments & Handouts in Psychotherapy Practice. 1 (3): 79–92. doi:10.1300/J182v01n03_09. S2CID   143697084.
  13. Sori, Catherine F.; Schnur, Sheryl (January 2014). "Trauma-focused integrated play therapy: an interview With Eliana Gil, part I". The Family Journal. 22 (1): 113–118. doi:10.1177/1066480713505280. S2CID   144835660.