Meet the Presenters
William F. Whelan, Psy.D.
Dr. Whelan is a clinical child & family psychologist specializing in work with families who are having emotional/behavioral (relationship-based) problems with their children due to developmental disorders, family stress, or loss and trauma. He is Co-Director of the Mary D. Ainsworth Child-Parent Attachment Clinic in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia.
Bill received a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Chicago, and has done graduate training in psychology at Chicago and The College of William and Mary where he received a Doctor of Psychology degree. He completed a clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
After his fellowship, Bill joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Medicine (where he worked for 14 years in Pediatrics and Psychiatric Medicine). He is currently a Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at UVA, and a clinician in independent practice. He provides teaching and consultation services to psychologists, social workers, and physicians across Virginia, in other areas of the country, and overseas. He is involved in several research projects to develop assessment instruments and evidence-based intervention protocols for at-risk children and their caregivers, and receives research funding from NIH. He also provides intensive training courses in the pre-school attachment coding system, videotape-based assessment of attachment-caregiving interactions, treatment of high-risk attachment-caregiving patterns, and in use of the Circle of Security intervention.
Dr. Athena A. Drewes
Dr. Athena Drewes is a licensed child psychologist, certified school psychologist and Registered Play Therapist–Supervisor. She holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from NYU, and a Psy.D. in
Child Clinical-School-Community Psychology from Pace University.
She is Director of Clinical Training of the APA–Accredited Doctoral Internship Program at The Astor Home for children, a full range, multiservice, nonprofit mental health agency in New York. Dr. Drewes provides supervision and therapy at the Astor Home. She is adjunct professor of play therapy at Marist and Sage Colleges, past Board of Directors of the Association for Play Therapy (2001–2007), Founder and Past President of the New York Association for Play Therapy and Director of the Play Therapy Institute.
Dr. Drewes is Secretary for the Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group of Division 56(Trauma) of the American Psychological Association. She is on the editorial board for Training and Education in Professional Psychology, and the International Journal of Play Therapy. Drewes has written and lectured extensively about play therapy nationally and internationally. She is co-editor and chapter author of School-based Play Therapy (Drewes, Carey, & Schaefer, 2001), Cultural Issues in Play Therapy (Gil & Drewes, 2005), and Supervision can be Playful: Play-based Techniques for Child and Play Therapist Supervisors (Drewes & Mullen, 2008).She is editor of Blending Play Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Evidence-based and Other Effective Treatments and Techniques (Wiley, 2009) and co-editor of School-based Play Therapy. Second Edition (with Schaefer, Wiley, 2009).
She is also a Supervisor on the Disaster Mental Health Leadership Team of the Red Cross in Greater New York, and a member of the Disaster Response Network of the New York State Psychological Association. She has worked for over 25 years across all settings with children and adolescents, specializing in treatment involving sexual abuse, trauma, attachment disorder, foster care children, supervision, and play therapy in the schools.
