FACILITY COORDINATOR

Toni Brown

Toni Brown has a passion for working with the children and adult population which is what bought her to Center for Discovery. She began her journey with Center for Discovery in one of our Connecticut’s Eating Disorder Facility as a counselor/on call facility manager she recently joined the Southport Outpatient facility to further her career as a Facility Coordinator.

Toni will continue to pursue her education in Business Management to receive her degree. Her long term goal is to work in Operations so she can continue to assist clients towards their recovery.

As the Facility Coordinator, Toni handles daily operations including administrative duties, research, clinical documentation, and customer service. Toni continues to strive to keep the adolescents and staff safe while keeping the facility a place they can call home.

In Toni’s free time, you can find her watching all of her favorite shows or playing her favorite card game Unstable Unicorns.

Clinical Intake Coordinator

Christine Sacane, LMSW

Christine is the Clinical Intake Coordinator at the Southport Adolescent PHP/IOP program. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and continued her education at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work, earning her Master of Social Work degree. She is a Licensed Master of Social Work.
Christine has worked with children, adolescents, and adults in individual and family settings, utilizing a strengths-based and solution-focused approach in the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, OCD, autism-spectrum disorder, and behavioral and emotional issues. She is passionate about the importance of family support systems in a client’s treatment, and also finds that warmth and connection with her clients is essential in establishing a safe environment where healing can occur. Christine believes in collaboratively working with clients to strengthen self-esteem, empowerment and interpersonal relationships as a path to healing.

A lifelong dancer of a variety of dance forms such as ballet, contemporary, lyrical, and group tribal-style bellydance has enabled Christine to deeply understand the positive effects dance and movement can have on mental health and body positivity and acceptance.

ART THERAPIST

Elizabeth M. Madden M.A.A.T., LPC

Elizabeth has attained her Master’s in art therapy as well as being a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has accrued over ten years of experience in the field of expressive art therapy and psychotherapy. Working with children, adolescents, and adults as well as families who are challenged by trauma, loss, PTSD, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and addiction. She has worked in both in and outpatient programs, schools, and community centers. Elizabeth has established her own private practice with offices in Newtown, Westport, and Greenwich. She has always had a passion for art and believes it can be used as a means of initiating and facilitating the process of healing through the expression of images and symbols. It is also a unique and effective approach for offering an alternative means of communication.

PRIMARY THERAPIST

Nicole Danish, LMSW

Nikki received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and then went on to receive her master’s degree in social work with a concentration in individuals, groups, and families. Nikki’s love of story telling led her to a passion for helping individuals tell their own in a grounded, nonjudgmental space. She is a licensed master social worker who specializes in eating disorders, disordered eating, and LGBTQIA+ gender affirming care. Nikki is fully committed to Health at Every Size™ principles and is passionate about providing brave spaces to individuals living in marginalized bodies. During her graduate career, she received training in Body Trust™ which she utilizes to help her clients unpack trauma and reclaim their bodies.

Nikki has multiple years of experience working with eating disorders and co-occurring mental illnesses for both adolescents and adults at the residential level of care. She practices from a feminist and systems theory perspective while using narrative and acceptance and commitment approaches to support recovery; furthermore, Nikki wholeheartedly believes recovery is possible and seeks to hold space for her clients who are learning this themselves.

REGISTERED DIETITIAN

Taylor Doktycz

Taylor’s nutrition journey began at Virginia Tech where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and graduated in 2016 and 2017, respectively. She completed a dietetic internship through Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 2018, with 1,200 hours of supervised practice experience in community, food service and inpatient hospital settings. During internship, she discovered a passion for working with individuals with eating disorders, participated in a rotation at a PHP/IOP eating disorder treatment program and spent time learning in an inpatient eating disorders unit. Following her internship and after passing the national registration exam, she worked for almost two years at an inpatient eating disorder treatment unit. She has also worked with individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities and has taught virtual child and adult cooking classes. Taylor is very excited to pivot back to the eating disorders world to gain experience at the outpatient level of care. She is very passionate about practicing from a non-diet, Health at Every Size® (HAES) perspective. Taylor loves to help others develop positive and healthy relationships with food and their bodies and is grateful to continue this work with adolescents and teens.

SENIOR THERAPIST

Lisa Iwanowski, LCSW

Lisa has over 30 years of experience working with survivors of trauma and with parents and children to reduce conflict and improve family functioning. She also has extensive experience working with adults and children in the areas of anxiety, depression, parenting, adoption and special needs advocacy.