Tonya Strand

Tonya received her MSW from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work in Newton, MA.   She completed her clinical internships at a Head Start and Northshore Children’s Hospital in the Boston area.    Following graduation she worked as a therapist providing home-based crisis intervention services to children, youth and families.    She was promoted to Program Coordinator at this agency where she also supervised clinical staff and was responsible for programmatic aspects of the agency including a contract with DCFS.    She also organized staff trainings and continued to provide clinical services to children, youth and families.    Tonya utilized many evidence-based interventions in this position to treat disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety, depression and trauma.    Furthermore, she worked and collaborated with several other agencies including pediatricians, schools, probation officers, DCFS workers, and other therapist.      

Tonya began working for the Jane Addams College of Social Work in 2009 where she provided support on various research projects.  In May of 2010, Tonya became the Program Coordinator for the Evidence-based Mental Health Practices with Children Certificate Program.  In this position, Tonya served as the field liaison for all students enrolled in the program.  She also assisted with curriculum development in order to train social work students to use evidence-based practices in children’s mental health.  Tonya assisted in training students to use Parent Management Training to treat disruptive behavior disorders, Coping Cat/Cat Project for anxiety, CBT for depression and the Common Elements approach to EBPs.  Tonya has also assisted in program evaluation and related research projects.  She has presented one paper at the NASW Council on Social Work Education and published articles resulting from the research. While living in Chicago, Tonya and her family also worked as Resident Heads at the University of Chicago for 5 years where they lived and worked among undergraduate students.  In the summer of 2016, Tonya began working as a field liaison for the ASU School of Social Work and in the Fall of 2016 a co-instructor.   For the past several years Tonya has worked in clinical practice seeing teens, adults and couples for therapy.  She utilizes CBT, the Gottman Method and Internal Family Systems therapy in practice.  Tonya has been in private practice since March 2024.