SOUTHPORT OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT PROGRAM

Cara Dascenzo

Cara began working with Discovery Mood & Anxiety Program (DMAP) in March 2018. Cara has 20 years of experience working with children to help them foster strong mental health strategies and skills. For 15 years, Cara developed her professional goals by working for the public school system in the special education program working with a diverse population of children with different social, emotional and learning disabilities. Cara continues to support her students through specialized programs, such as mentoring at-risk youth and obtaining Mental Health First Aid certification. Cara was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Phoenix based on her dedication of her work with children where she completed a B.S. in human service and management in 2013.

In March of 2018, Cara started as a counselor in the Fairfield residential program in which she helped patients through the treatment process with therapeutic enrichment and treatment focus groups. In March 2020, Cara became the milieu manager for the Southport mental health outpatient program. Here, she continues to teach and provide support to both patients and staff on the benefits of wellness and enrichment throughout the treatment process. Cara is an ideal role model in patience, compassion and professionalism, who puts her heart into all of her work. She believes in living what you teach, and when she is not working, she can be found walking her beloved dog Luna, or away at Kripalu learning more about mediation and yoga.

Jacqueline Guiliana

Jacqueline earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from Simmons University where she specialized in Children and Family. Jacqueline is dedicated to helping adolescents by empowering them and their families to work through conflicts and increase effective communication. Jacqueline believes that through therapy, people have the ability of increasing well-being and effective functioning. Jacqueline’s approach is strength’s based and empathetic. Jacqueline predominately uses talk-therapy, DBT, and CBT to assist patients in their recovery.  

Arianna Mora LSW

Arianna is a licensed social worker who obtained her master of social work degree from Southern Connecticut State University with an emphasis on children and families. Arianna has worked in adolescent group home and residential settings. Arianna started as a counselor at Discovery Mood & Anxiety Program before accepting the role of therapist. Arianna utilizes a strengths-based approach and incorporates therapeutic interventions of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness and psychodynamic theory when working with adolescents and their families. Arianna is passionate about working with adolescents and helping their families with the multitude of challenges that arise with changing life dynamics. Arianna truly believes all the individuals she works with are deserving of recovery, healing and a life worth living.

Rachel D. Metzger

Rachel joined Discovery in 2021 and has since worked as the Education Liaison for middle and high school patients. She has experience in Discovery’s Residential Treatment Program, Partial Hospitalization Program, and Intensive Outpatient Program. Rachel efficiently coordinates between students, school systems, parents and psychiatrists to ensure that academic transitions run smoothly. Most importantly, she is an advocate for the students and all of their academic needs. She teaches academic confidence and encourages patients to practice autonomous advocacy. Rachel takes a proactive planning approach that is focused on goals, plans to overcome obstacles and identifying areas of growth. She plans to work towards improving those areas. Rachel is passionate, strategic, and enthusiastic in her treatment. She leads coping skills groups to aid in coping skills, cognitive restructuring, communication, identifying and addressing needs and more. Rachel majored in biopsychology, cognition, and neuroscience with a concentration in developmental psychology at University of Michigan. She has research experience, cognitive behavioral therapy certification and experience with education for children, teens and adults with learning and behavioral disabilities. Rachel plans on continuing her own education and researching new ways to teach and improve mental wellness.

Taylor Hom

Samantha has been working with the Discovery Mood & Anxiety Program since August 2021. She began as a mental health technician in the Stamford house and soon after took on the role of wellness liaison. Currently, Samantha is the education liaison for one of the tracks at the Stamford house. After graduating from Fordham University with her bachelor of science in psychology, she was excited to gain experience working in the mental health field. Samantha’s personal experiences have made her passionate about doing this work and being able to act as a mentor and support for children and adolescents in recovery. She understands and upholds the value of seeing each child as more than a patient or diagnosis. She intends to further her education by obtaining her master of social work and is currently in the process of becoming a certified cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) coach practitioner. In the future, Samantha aims to become a therapist specializing in the treatment and care of folks with eating disorders. She is also interested in working with LGBTQ+ and Latinx populations. Outside of work, Samantha enjoys dancing, doing crossword puzzles and taking walks with her dog.