By appointment only 651-210-0335

Curriculum Vitae

Deena M. McMahon

821 Raymond Avenue, Suite 130A
Saint Paul, MN 55114
(612) 382-2341

EDUCATION

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
M.S.W., Social Work, summa cum laude, 1992
Honors Student, Advanced Standing Placement

Carroll College, Waukesha, WI
B.S., Social Work, magna cum laude, 1981
Areas of Concentration: Child Welfare and Community Service

CREDENTIALS

Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, 1994

CURRENT POSITION

McMahon Counseling and Consultation Services, LLC
April 2008 - Present

  • Provide office-based therapy to individuals, families, couples, and groups, with expertise in attachment, adoption, sexual/physical abuse, neglect, mental illness, trauma, family violence, grief/loss, crisis intervention, and cross-cultural issues.
  • Conduct Forensic Parenting, Attachment, and Sibling Relationship assessments to determine family strengths/needs, interventions, and case-planning recommendations.
  • Serve as consultant to numerous state and county child protection agencies, adoption agencies, and parent support groups, as well as the MN State Guardian Ad Litem Program.
  • Develop and provide regional and national workshops/curriculums to state judges, public defenders, social services agencies, mental health professionals, Guardian Ad Litems, and parents on topics including attachment, abuse and neglect, trauma, grief and loss, and adoption.
  • Supervise concurrent planning cases and facilitate weekly therapy group for parents in the Concurrent Planning Project. Develop an interdisciplinary team with county workers to intervene with complex poor prognosis cases to assist in successful reunification or permanent placement of children.
  • Provide expert testimony on contentious child welfare cases.
  • Served as consultant to Children’s Justice Initiative of Chisago, Isanti, and Kanabec Counties.
  • Completed Child Development Chapter for Minnesota District Court Judges’ Bench Book (2010).
  • Developed children’s mental health curriculum now required statewide for foster care licensing CEU (2011).

    • PAST EMPLOYMENT

    Therapeutic Services Agency, Pine City, MN
    Director, Intensive In-Home Services/Family Therapist, 1988-2008

    • Provided supervision, training, and ongoing support to 25+ family-based services therapists.
    • Assisted therapists on case-related issues including custody decisions, placements, abuse/neglect indicators, interventions, assessments, and determining clients’ services.
    • Researched and developed clinical approaches to working with highly-resistant therapy clients with an emphasis on respect for the individual.
    • Maintained individual caseload and provided direct therapy to chronic, multi-problem families referred by Child Protection Services.
    • Provided case consult and recommendations for clients and county case managers in permanency cases.
    • Coordinated services between referral source and client families while assuring quality service delivery; facilitated referrals for specialized care as needed.
    • Assisted in development and implementation of Treatment Plans that include diagnostic assessments.
    • Conducted Sibling Relationship, Attachment, and Forensic Parenting assessments; provided recommendations and intervention strategies within.
    • Served as consultant to Alternative Response Team (Anoka Co.); Permanency Project Advisory Board (Anoka Co.); Child Protection Unit (Chisago Co.); and MN Association of Family-Based Service Providers.
    • Presenting problems in client families included dynamics of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, blended families, emotional abuse and neglect, domestic abuse and family violence, grief issues, adoption, including cross cultural, mental illness including such diagnoses as borderline personality, schizophrenia, attention deficit and hyperactivity, obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, substance abuse and addiction, parenting education, eating disorders, anti-social behavior, and attachment disorders.

    Operation DeNovo, Minneapolis, MN, 1984-1986

    • Offered counseling services and community referrals for nonviolent offenders through Court Diversion Program.
    Gerard Schools of Iowa and Minnesota, 1981-1984

    • Provided in-home counseling to families primarily referred through Child Protection Services.

    AREAS OF EXPERTISE

    • Adoption
    • Attachment Assessment Tools
    • Attunement
    • Behavioral Interventions
    • Chemical Abuse
    • Children’s Mental Health (ASD, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, FASD, ODD)
    • Compassion Fatigue/Burnout
    • Concurrent Planning
    • Cultural Diversity Training
    • DC-03: Diagnostic Criteria For Children Zero To Three
    • Developmental Theories
    • Domestic Violence
    • DSM Diagnostic Criteria
    • Dynamics of Sibling Groups
    • Ecological Approach: Sexual Abuse Treatment
    • Family Centered Practice
    • Grief and Loss Issues
    • Highly-resistant clients
    • Knowledge in ICWA cultural parenting practices and active efforts
    • Juvenile Protection
    • Mediation and Conflict Resolution
    • Parenting Assessment Tools
    • Therapies: Play; Reality; Narrative; Brief Solution-Focused; Theraplay; Structural Family; Systemic Family
    • Reactive Attachment Disorder
    • Reunification Strategies
    • Social Learning Theories
    • Trauma Affects and Therapy
    • Treatment of Family and Multi-Generational Sexual Abuse

    ASSOCIATIONS

    • National Association of Social Workers
    • Minnesota Association of Family Based Services Providers
    • NACAC – North American Council on Adoptable Children
    • ATTACH – Association for Treatment & Training in the Attachment of Children
    • Theraplay Institute

    McMahon Counseling & Consultation Services, LLC

    821 Raymond Ave.
    St. Paul, MN 55114

    (651) 210-0335

    "I like the idea that by the end of the day I've made some sort of difference." — Deena McMahon, MSW, ICSW