Deborah Antinori, MA, LPC, NCC, FT, RDT (she/her/hers) is a Licensed Professional Counselor with 29 years in private practice with wide-ranging expertise in many areas including grief, trauma, wellness & more. She is a Brainspotting Trainer and Certified Consultant. She has been using Brainspotting since its inception in 2003. Deborah met the developer of Brainspotting, David Grand, in the late ‘90’s as the EMDR facilitator in her EMDR trainings, and he became Deborah’s supervisor for her private practice of therapy. Deborah is honored to be a Brainspotting trainer in the first BIPOC Consultant-in-Training (CIT) program, which is a collaborative program with the BIPOC CIT therapists in this group.
As a grief therapist, Deborah holds her FT, Fellow in Thanatology, from the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She has spoken nationwide on the subject of pet loss, a disenfranchised loss, at national conferences, community meetings, and on TV, radio and podcasts.
Many years ago, Deborah was an Interpreter for the Deaf in the Mountain Lakes, NJ school system’s mainstream program for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students. She interpreted in Signed English, not ASL. This was her introduction into the human services which led her into her study at NYU to become a Drama Therapist and then psychotherapist.
She is a masters graduate of NYU’s Drama Therapy Dept. Originally an actress, she earned her BFA from the Boston Conservatory of Music and is still in the professional actor’s unions, AEA and SAG/AFTRA. Her professional life as an actress included work at the NJ Shakespeare Festival, summer stock, national tours, educational theater, regional theater, NY soap operas, and national commercials. She taught acting for the camera at Morris County College for 10 years. And with movement into the field of psychology, segued into the Alcoholism Counseling Curriculum division teaching Transference and Countertransference.
Deborah worked in the Psychodrama Department at Fair Oaks Psychiatric Hospital (now Summit Hospital), first as an intern with Ingrid Schirrholz, MA, and then as an employee in both inpatient and outpatient programs (eating disorders, survivors of sexual abuse, general psychiatric population and milieu therapy).
Her professional life has encompassed multiple studies and trainings informing her practice including being a Certified Brain Health Coach through the Amen Clinic program, Pesso Boyden Psychomotor Therapy, Wellness Institute Hypnotherapy, EMDR Levels l & ll, and Thought Field Therapy. In the areas of energy and body work she is a Certified Jin Shin Jyutsu Practitioner through coursework with Philomena Dooley, RN; and holds her Reiki ll from study with Reiki Master, Eileen Foose, RN. She also studied Therapeutic Touch with Crystals with Oh Shinnah Fastwolf.
She has begun work on a PhD through the International University for Graduate Studies, with her mentor, Damir delMonte, a Croatian neuroscientist now living in Germany, who holds two PhDs, in medicine and psychology.
Past Publications & Recent Works:
Deborah coauthored an article with colleague Penelope Moore, DSW, following a workshop at a National Drama Therapy Association’s annual conference at Yale with the same title: The Controlled Approach Exercise in Cultural Diversity Training with Clinicians, This article appears in the “Special Issue: Multiculturalism in the Arts in Psychotherapy, Penny Lewis, Guest Editor”. The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1997, pp. 173-182.
Deborah authored a chapter on Grief and Brainspotting in The Power of Brainspotting: An International Anthology, Gerhard Wolfrum, Ed. Deborah is the author and narrator of the double award-winning audiobook, Journey Through Pet Loss. (Audie Award – Audio Publishers Association, ForeWord Book of the Year Award – Silver).
She has recently led Zoom sessions on Brainspotting and Telehealth, and the Brain and Grief in the era of COVID for Brainspotting Indonesia which are available as recordings on her website. Additionally, she has spoken on Managing Existential Trauma with podcast host Kathryn Guylay, and on Managing Existential Trauma with Brainspotting for Dr. Anna Cabecca, The Girlfriend Doctor. Both recordings can also be found on Deborah’s website, the latter podcast contains information on pet loss as well as managing in the time of COVID.
You can learn more about Deborah’s work here.