About Nita

Hi! Welcome to my website. I would like to tell you about the professional education, training and experience that have prepared me to be able to understand and help you with the problems that bring you to my site.

In 1979 I received my M.S.W. from the Temple University School of Social Work. In 1982 I completed a post-Master's Institute in Advanced Clinical Practice given by the Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Social Work and in 1985 I completed a three-year clinical training program in couples and family therapy given at the Family Institute of Philadelphia. These excellent programs, along with many years of supervision, peer supervision and continuing education have given me the solid foundation to enhance and support my work with a diverse group of clients dealing with a variety of difficult issues. I am a trained EMDR practitioner and integrate that with my therapy.

My previous practice settings have included: working with pre-school and school-age children and their families in a day-care setting providing family therapy and parenting groups to intergenerational families, single-parent families, families experiencing separation, divorce and re-marriage, families of special needs children and to gay and lesbian families; working with adolescents in residential treatment and their families providing them with in-patient and out-patient therapy; working with alcohol and drug abusers and their families; working with families of children with genetic diseases; working in a large out-patient Counseling Program; working in a court setting providing counseling services; working in a hospital setting with children and their families.

As I have grown as a therapist, it has been my pleasure to teach and supervise students and therapists at the same institutions where I received my own training years earlier. I have been on the faculty at the Family Institute of Philadelphia, the Institute of the Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Social Work, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor of couple and family therapists. I currently provide private supervision to therapists and consultation to an agency providing wrap-around services to special needs children and therapeutic foster care. Being able to teach and supervise clinicians is stimulating and allows me to continue to learn from those I teach.

Over the years I have utilized my professional knowledge and experience to volunteer my services in some very meaningful ways. I have served as a consultant to the Parent Peer Support Network for the National Tay Sachs and Allied Diseases Association helping parents of children with genetic diseases develop a nation-wide support group. We trained and developed parent leadership, involved and connected extended family members and created a responsible network of guidance and support for parents who are struggling with unbearable tragedy. I felt honored to be a part of such a remarkable group of people.

For a number of years I participated in a Holocaust Study Group at the University of Pennsylvania Marriage Council where we studied the effects of the trauma of the Holocaust on survivors and their families. We read, we studied and we interviewed survivors seeking to understand their ability to transcend the trauma and go on. I learned of strength and resilience in the face of tragedy and unspeakable horror. This experience has strengthened my belief in the ability of human beings to ultimately cope with their traumas and make meaning of their lives.

I currently maintain a private psychotherapy practice with offices in Center City Philadelphia and King of Prussia, PA working with individuals, couples and families. Some of my special areas of interest include creating healthy relationships, trauma and abuse, grief and loss, couples issues, infertility and pregnancy loss and intergenerational issues.

To ask about therapy, to arrange an appointment or to schedule a free telephone consultation, please contact me at 215-763-9631 or email to ntlavermsw@aol.com.