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Located at our 600 Fifth Avenue
Office in San Rafael
Phone Number: 415/491-7959
Please click on the linked names below to view individual bios of our staff.
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Group & Workshop Leaders
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Counseling
Parent Coaching and Consultation
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Rachael Bouch-Dimondstein is a Youth-in-Arts Mentor Artist and a Special Needs Group Leader at Parents Place, Marin.
Rachael has been teaching and performing as a percussionist for ten years and is passionate about teaching and making music. She currently teaches music in several schools at elementary through high school level, and has experience with children with special needs. In the classroom, Rachael helps her students to develop a fluency in the language of music by playing percussion instruments and working rhythm into the body through drumming, singing, body percussion, and dance/movement. World music is a central theme in the curriculum, including songs in many languages and movement games from diverse cultures.
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Rebecca Breen, LCSW: Coordinator, Marin Parents Place and Center for Special Needs
Rebecca has a broad range of experience working with children and youth, including taking the lead in developing strength-based behaviorally focused treatment of high-risk children and adolescents with behavioral difficulties; children with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to physical or sexual abuse; and resources for parents of children with special needs.
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Susan Byrd, LCSW, is a Child & Family Therapist and Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
Susan studied at Boston University and at the Kantor Institute for Family Therapy in Boston. Prior to her tenure at Jewish Family and Children's Services, she worked as a social worker at Ross Hospital in Marin, serving children, adolescents and adults in the psychiatric inpatient section. Susan is the mother of two children ages 5 and 6.
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Liana Day-Williams, MFT: Child and Family Therapist at Parents Place in Marin.
Liana specializes in working with adults, children and families affected by domestic violence and trauma; anger management; depression; anxiety; relationship issues; and parenting. Adding to her group and clinical expertise is her experience as the mother of two young children.
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Sanna Delmonico, M.S., R.D. is a Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
A registered dietitian and the mother of an teenage daughter, Sanna is devoted to making good food simple and delicious for families. Sanna has a bachelor's degree in dietetics from San Francisco State University, and a master's degree in nutrition from Louisiana State University. She is the founder and editor of Tiny Tummies, a food and nutrition newsletter for parents. She has counseled hundreds of parents and children both in her private practice and as an outpatient nutritionist at California Pacific Medical Center. Sanna teaches healthy eating classes to parent groups around the Bay Area.
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Mical Falk, Ph.D. Workshop Leader with Parents Place in Marin and San Francisco.
Mical holds a Masters Degree in Expressive Art Therapy and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She has studied, taught, researched and practiced psychology for more than 25 years and, as the mother of two, has personal as well as professional experience concerning issues pertaining to motherhood.
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John Gusman, LCSW, is the Director of Clinical Services for Parents Place, Marin.
John received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University, where he trained to be a teacher. He has taught school in a variety of settings in this country and abroad, including a Swiss International Boarding School as well as in various elementary and junior high schools and preschools. Following this he went to U.C. Berkeley where he studied clinical social work. His training also included an internship at Stanford University's Department of Child Psychiatry. John has designed and taught numerous workshops and groups and has served at Parents Place and Jewish Family and Children's Services for over 20 years.
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Francis Macrae, MFT, is a consultant in the Early Childhood Mental Health Project
and a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Francis holds a BA in Social Sciences from Fordham University, a Montessori Teaching Certificate from Sonoma State University, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from San Francisco State University. Francis comes to JFCS after a 27-year teaching career at the San Francisco School, an independent progressive school serving a diverse population of 275 families, pre/K through 8th grade. He was also head teacher in a Montessori classroom of 3- through 6-year-old children where he created and taught an array of curriculum including social/emotional development. Finally, as a step-father, Francis helped raise two children from ages 9 and 11 to adulthood.
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Leslie O'Connell, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with JFCS Marin.
Leslie received her A.B. in Mathematics and Linguistics from U.C. Berkeley, her Ed.M. from Harvard, and her Ph.D. from C.S.P.P. As part of her training, she worked at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. She also was previously a research assitant at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. She currently works with children, adolescents and adults, in areas including child and adult depression and anxiety, parent-child attachment, and child and adolescent transitions.
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Jennifer Reynolds, MFT: Consultant in the Early Childhood Mental Health Project and a Parent Educator with Parents Place in Marin.
She has been a psychotherapist for 10 years and spent the last six consulting to daycare centers, helping parents and caregivers better understand the individual needs of children from birth to five years. She has a 16-month old daughter who provides an abundance of hands-on experience.
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Lori Rifkin, M.S. Ed., Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Lori obtained a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College and worked as an educator during the 1970s. She received her doctorate from California School of Professional Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital at Stanford and the Children's Health Council in psychotherapy and testing with children and adolescents. Lori served as staff psychologist for the Children's Institute of JFCS in San Francisco. She is the first author of Finding a Preschool for your Child in San Francisco and Marin. She is the mother of a five-year-old.
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Bonnie Romanow, Consultant in the Early Childhood Mental Health Project and a Parent Educator with Parents Place in Marin and San Francisco
She has been working with children and families for nearly 20 years. Trained as a Waldorf teacher and group facilitator, she has been an early childhood teacher, preschool director and founding member of the Great Oaks School in the Chicago area. Her work with children under 3 and their parents led her to the Touchpoints work as well as the RIE I training program. She served on the governing body of both the Chicago Waldorf School and the Great Oaks School and as secretary for Preschool Council of Evanston. Bonnie worked with at-risk teens for the Youth-At-Risk community program, as well as with birth parents and adoptive parents. Parent education and support has always been a part of her work. Bonnie has two grown daughters and is a proud grandmother.
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Robert Scott, MSW, Parent Educator with Parents Place in Marin and San Francisco.
Robert is a pioneer in the field of Father Support, and is involved both locally and nationally in the Father Support movement. He has a Master's degree in Social Welfare from the University of Utah, is a certified Parent Education Teacher, and has taught Parent Education classes throughout the Bay Area for over 20 years. He developed the popular "Parents Place Lecture Series," dealing with integral stages of children's development, and the "All About Boys!" workshop curricula. He specializes in providing support and guidance to parents through individual coaching and consultation sessions.
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Pnina Tobin, MPA: Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin and San Francisco.
Pnina is a single mother who participated in the creation of two organizations focusing on single parenting—MOMMA and One-Parent Family Education. In 1980, she founded and directed The Children's Self-Help Project, providing personal safety programs for parents and teachers, preschoolers, middle school and high school students, and children with disabilities of all ages.
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Contact Us
Call (415) 491-7959 or e-mail BonniS@jfcs.org for more information.
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