Meet The Team

Cynthia Kelvin, PsyD, RDT

Cynthia has taught psychology courses at the college level, as well as workshops in the community for social advocacy and personal growth and transformation. She has worked in community mental health settings as well as in private rehabilitation with people in all stages of life and recovery. Her work is based on the belief that by exploring parts of self through creative activity participants can overcome barriers, foster mindfulness, and cultivate personal strengths. She works to facilitate creative support groups with the overall goal of helping clients lead a healthy, creative, and playfully inspired life. Cynthia has expanded her focus on healing and transformation through utilizing the power of poetry and is completing her CPT (Certified Poetry Therapy) from the International Association for Bibliotherapy and/Poetry Therapy. 

Ksenia IIinskaya

Ksenia Ilinskaya is a psychology professor at the University of Higher Economics in Moscow and specializes in narrative therapy and Narradrama. She is a Narradrama trainer (NT). Who utilizes drama therapy and the creative arts in both her teaching and in therapeutic work with clients.  Ksenia is pioneering Narradrama in Russia through running workshops, conferences and training for professionals and educators.  In addition, through her teaching, clinical, and translation works, she is making a significant contribution in her country during a time of extreme turmoil by persisting in offering trainings, therapy, and support groups to bring hope in a time of darkness. She also teaches for the Narradrama certification program in China sponsored by DTILA and Apollo.

Dimitra Stavrou

Dimitra Stavrou is a licensed psychologist with a Master's in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Rouen (France) and Panteion University (Athens). She is also a licensed drama therapist in Europe and has post-graduate specialization in ethnographic research (University of Ioannina) and Performance Art (University of Athens). Dimitra is trained in various artistic forms and other psychotherapeutic approaches. With over 30 years of therapeutic experience, she has worked with individuals and groups in drama therapy, and she supervises and teaches drama therapy methods both in Greece and abroad. Dimitra has collaborated extensively with universities and research institutes on mental health projects, including programs for the social inclusion of individuals with drug addiction, refugees, detainees, and high-risk teens. She has been responsible for city hall programs and organizations providing art therapies in the community. She also works with private companies as a drama therapy trainer, focusing on team-building and support.

In 2016, she co-created the Developmental Ritualistic Model of Interconnected Drama Therapy with F. Trigazi. Dimitra is the founder of the performance group "Liminals" and the author of numerous articles. She is also a co-editor of a drama therapy book, and is a member of the Greek Association of Drama and Play.

Cassandra Ambe

As an AMFT, working in a residential treatment setting, Cassandra uses creative, trauma-informed approaches to integrate externalization, visual art-making and Narradrama approaches to provide a non-verbal outlet for processing emotions, enhancing self-awareness, and emotional expression. Clients reframe their stories and increase engagement in 12-step recovery while cultivating self-reflection, connection, and community. Witnessing clients reclaim their narratives and build coping skills through creativity has reinforced my belief in the power of experiential, strengths-based interventions in recovery as well as the importance of holistic, trauma-informed care.

Lynn Baker-Nauman

Lynn is a Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Drama Therapist and received her Master's in Counseling Psychology and Drama Therapy at CIIS in San Francisco. Lynn is a social justice advocate and believes in our ability to re-story and connect with our power to heal through theatre. In her private practice, she works with individuals and couples with a focus on trauma work.

Lynn is an Adjunct Professor of Social Work/Human Services and Theatre at Folsom Lake College for the Prison Re-entry Education Program and for Cal State Dominguez Hills MA program for Humanities in CDCR prisons. She taught and directed Shakespeare to groups in multiple prisons in Northern California.

Her publications include:

NADTA: Drama Therapy Review, a collaborative article The Healing Art of Performing and Witnessing Shakespeare: Transferring drama therapy skills to the theatre classroom inside prison and beyond (2022), and co-authored a chapter in INTO ABOLITIONIST THEATRE: A Guidebook for Liberatory Theatre-making, published April 2024.