
Christina E.J. Belknap MSW, LCSW
Executive Director
Locations:
Florida
Pennsylvania
Insurances
About
Christina is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Doctoral Candidate with over twelve years of experience, at home and abroad, with substance use and trauma supporting individuals, groups, and families in achieving self-development, recovery, and personal healing goals.
Christina is first and foremost a relational, holistic, and attachment-based practitioner, meaning that the strength of the therapeutic dynamic allows for client and therapist to partner in addressing desired change. At times, this may also mean facing barriers to change such as resistance, discomfort, and how our behaviors and patterns often stand in our own way. Christina is firmly solutions-focused and direct in style but maintains a strong foundation of mutual respect, empathy, and an unwavering drive to empower those she works with to take control of their lives in positive ways. No typical well-worn therapist lines here. Christina brings a professional use of self that is firmly grounded in forming a humanistic bond, at times out of the box, and dedicated to inspiring those she works with to achieve forward motion by whatever means necessary. Thus, treatment modalities may range from formal frameworks such as CBT or DBT, to mindfulness somatic-based approaches or the use of more creative interventions such as narrative therapy and watching films. Ultimately, she believes that healing is always possible if you’re willing to make new choices—resonating with Thich Nhat Hanh’s words, “We should not be afraid of suffering. We should be afraid of not knowing how to deal with our suffering”.
Christina also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College. She is an intersectional feminist, a weightlifter, an ex-Muay Thai fighter, and a mom to her sweet rescue dog Jura. She enjoys music, photography, buying books she will probably never finish, and spending time with her younger twin sisters.
Locations:
Florida
Pennsylvania
Credentials, Qualifications and Languages
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2021 Passed Pennsylvania Clinical Social Work Licensing Exam (LCSW)
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2020 Bowens Family Systems Theory Certificate, University of Pittsburg
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2019 Trauma Recovery Empowerment Model (TREM) Certificate (BHTEN, PA)
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2018 Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing Therapy (EMDRIA)
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2017 Faith & Spiritual Based Counseling, Community College of Philadelphia
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2017 Passed Pennsylvania Social Work Licensing Exam (LSW)
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2017 Masters of Social Work degree conferred, University of Pennsylvania
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2016 Mental Health Enhanced Placement Program, Philadelphia Connections
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SELF: Trauma-Informed Care in the Practice Setting (BHTEN, PA)
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Bachelor of Arts Degree Conferred, Georgia State University
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Intimate Partner Violence, Partnership Against Domestic Violence (PADV, GA)
Christina Belknap is a licensed clinical social worker and doctoral candidate at the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She received a BA from Georgia State University in 2010 where she was a HOPE scholar all years and selected for the Eleanor M. Pratt Scholarship for Outstanding English Majors. She received an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, where she was selected for a competitive PEARLS Fellowship program and given an Excellence in Staff Leadership Award by the department of college houses and academic services. Christina served in the Peace Corps from 2013-2015 in the Eastern Caribbean where she provided leadership as the Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) representative for this multi-island post.
Through her education and more than twelve years in the field, Christina’s work continues to center on areas of substance use and trauma as well as the ways in which we recover and heal best both individually and in relationship with others. As a PhD candidate Christina is predominantly interested in the intersection of addiction with trauma, gender, and violence. She is passionate about developing inclusive and equitable pedagogical practices with an emphasis on the role of belonging, safety, and learning theories.
Why Healthcare
Both personally and professionally, Christina is driven by the continual possibility of transformation—pursuing self-improvement, self-actualization, and self-accountability to enrich and improve our lives. She feels this impacts not only our own experience but those around us and the wider communities in which we live.
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