Our Team
Kassandra “Kassy” Baltazar Alarcón, MSW
Bienestar Programs Coordinator and Therapist
Kassy (she/her/ella) is a bilingual therapist with experience in maternal and child home visiting programs, and skilled in treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. She works with diverse families, including immigrants and refugees, and values intergenerational healing. As a Latina, Kassy uses creativity and expressive art practices to work with Latinas and the Latine community, focusing on nurturing and reparenting the inner mother and child while honoring ancestral lineages.
Kara Castle, LCSW
Therapist and Referral Support Specialist
Kara (she/her) shines light on each participant’s inherent wisdom as they deepen their relationship to themselves. She provides a peaceful, warm, and motivating therapeutic space as they transform their experiences of stress, trauma, anxiety, and grief and learn to re-work boundaries for thriving in new realities. Kara has a psychodynamic style and draws upon practices within somatic therapy, IFS parts work, polyvagal theory, and nature-informed therapy.
Elizabeth E. Cobb, LCSW 🏳️🌈
Clinical Coordinator and Therapist
Elizabeth (she/her) believes trusting relationships are vital to healing. She enjoys helping clients in becoming attuned to own their needs, utilizing experiential therapeutic modalities such as EMDR and internal family systems to aid this process. Elizabeth values the healing power of art and nature and is passionate about LGBTQ+ affirming care. At TWI, she provides individual therapy and clinical supervision, in addition to tending to the office plants.
Judith Curry-El, PhD
Therapist
Judith (she/her) obtained her PhD degree from the University of Virginia in 1996, where she also completed her residency and post-doctoral neuropsychology fellowship. She has worked at Western State Hospital and as the mental health director at Greensville Correctional Center. Judith is passionate about helping all women have access to mental health services. Her interests include insight-oriented and mindfulness-based therapies.
Alyson Davis, LMFT
Sister Circle Director and Therapist
Alyson (she/her) is a narrative therapist who believes in healing through storytelling — not reinventing individuals, but instead helping individuals reclaim themselves. Her identities are Black, cisgender, heterosexual, married, stepmother, mid-30s, spiritual, and from a middle-class military family originally from the southern region of the United States. In addition to narrative practices, she utilizes solution-focused, person-centered, collaborative, strengths-based approaches. Her work helps community members become their own allies.
Elise Gibson, LCSW
Therapist and General Counseling Clinical Group Coordinator
Elise's (she/her) clinical approach is eclectic while being strongly rooted in psychodynamic theory, feminist theory, and attachment theory. She pays special attention to her clients' process of telling their stories, with a focus on non-verbal cues and glimmers of their internal experience. Elise sees the responsible and humble use of self as highly important and tries her best to practice from a context-driven, social justice-oriented perspective.
Kishara Joy Griffin, MSW
Sister Circle Therapist
Kishara (she/her) earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, minoring in sociology, from the University of Maine Farmington. She later received her master’s degree in social work from Boston University. Kishara is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), along with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). She is passionate about healing and working collaboratively to support meaningful change.
Juanika Howard, LPC
Sister Circle Therapist and Program Specialist
Juanika (she/her) received her BS from ODU in psychology and counseling and her MS in mental health counseling from Longwood. She utilizes eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, cognitive behavioral therapy, expressive art therapy interventions, and mindfulness in sessions. Juanika walks alongside community members on their journeys to increase supportive and creative resources that meet their needs, and is passionate about normalizing mental health and being in community with others.
Elizabeth Irvin, LCSW
Executive Director
Elizabeth (she/her) joined the agency in 2009 as its first Spanish-speaking therapist, founding the Bienestar program to serve Latina women in our community. In 2013, she became executive director and has guided the agency into becoming the second-largest provider of mental health care in the Charlottesville area and a leader in trauma-informed, culturally responsive care. As a therapist, Elizabeth emphasizes a strengths-based perspective, incorporating mindfulness-based practices, internal family systems, and grief work.
Miranda Pax, MSW
Therapist
Miranda (she/her) believes in the healing power of relationships. She uses a strengths-based approach and strives to create an environment in which participants feel safe, respected, and empowered. Miranda draws from a variety of therapeutic approaches, including mindfulness, parts work, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Prior to becoming a therapist, Miranda spent more than a decade working to advance disability inclusion.
Ingrid Ramos, LPC
Bienestar Program Director and Therapist
Ingrid (she/her/ella) is a Dominican-American Latina dedicated to community mental health. She has a bachelor’s in psychology from Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago (UTESA) and a Master of Arts degree in professional counseling from Liberty University. For the last 16 years, Ingrid has been dedicated to serving the Latine community as a counselor. Her passion is to inspire others in their well-being, resilience, hope, and collective healing.
Paige Riddle, MSW
Therapist and Resilience Educator
Paige (she/her) has provided direct social work services in the Shenandoah Valley and southwestern Arizona. She views therapy as a collaborative, relational process that builds on individual and collective strengths. While Paige has training in different modalities, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, she prioritizes an emotion-focused approach to build a strong therapeutic relationship that fosters safety and attunement.
Laura “Lo” Somel, MSW
Bilingual Therapist and Access Specialist
Lo (she/her/ella) recently graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Master of Social Work degree. She has experience working with diverse populations such as children with special education needs, refugees, undocumented immigrants, and families in poverty. Lo also served in the Peace Corps, working with women artisans in a rural Moroccan village. She believes mental health services are an integral part of individual and community health and well-being.
Shelly Wood, LCSW
Clinical Services Director and Therapist
Shelly (she/her) holds an MSW from VCU and bachelor’s degree from UVA. She incorporates CBT, IFS, EMDR, and mindfulness in trauma healing, emphasizing the power of safety in therapeutic relationships, and is trained in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Shelly values community education, supporting monthly discussions at JABA’s Mary Williams Center. She is a member of the Central Virginia Clinicians of Color Network and Chihamba West African Dance and Drumming Company.
Emily Zeanah Shelton, LCSW
Therapist and Clinical Training Coordinator
Emily (she/her) completed her master’s degree in social work at VCU. Her clinical background in intensive, community-based treatment has helped her appreciate the multiple and intersecting layers of experience that influence well-being and mental health. Emily draws from DBT, EMDR, and mindfulness, and her clinical practice is grounded in a commitment to social justice, sensitivity to trauma, and belief in relationships as sites of healing and growth.