Traci Hunter, MSW, LCSW, CSOTP, brings 18 years of clinical experience to private practice, having come to southeastern Virginia from Michigan 2 decades ago to pursue her education in psychology. She obtained both her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Social Work degrees from Norfolk State University. After several years as a mental health clinician, group facilitator, and experiential therapist at the Tidewater Psychiatric Institute, she moved into private practice in 1993. In the context of private practice she has worked with children, adolescents, and families, and she also functioned as an in-home family specialist with the Institute for Family Centered Services.

     Ms. Hunter’s primary focus in her clinical work has been counseling with patients who have addictions and those who have experienced significant trauma. She brought her credentials and experience to Palm Springs, California, in 1998, to work at the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center and the Betty Ford Center. At the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, Ms. Hunter worked primarily as a trauma specialist with children who had been emotionally, physically, and sexually abused. Her experience at the Betty Ford Center was particularly enriching and fulfilling as an addictions counselor, working as a family and group therapist with addicted adults and their families.

     Upon her return to Virginia Beach in 2004, Ms. Hunter incorporated her experience as a trauma specialist and addictions counselor into a holistic family treatment program at the Institute for Family Centered Services in Chesapeake, Virginia. In this environment she provided both intensive in-home family therapy and individual substance abuse counseling for adolescents, while she facilitated group substance abuse treatment for adolescents and adults. She used her certification as a Sex Offender Treatment Provider to facilitate therapeutic, experiential process groups for adolescent male sex offenders and their caretakers and conducted court-ordered psychosexual evaluations. Ms. Hunter continues to coordinate and provide adolescent sex offender treatment services as an independent contractor at the Institute for Family Centered Services.

     An excellent public speaker, Ms. Hunter has given presentations in both the Tidewater area and in Southern California, her topics having included trauma, addictions, self-mutilation, and family systems. In 1998 she presented at the 6th Annual Child and Adolescent Conference in Virginia Beach on “Adolescent Self Mutilation,” at Norfolk State University on “Boundaries and Family Systems,” and at the Virginia Beach Central Library on “Family Systems and Communication.” She also gave presentations on “Trauma and Dissociation in Children” at the University of Southern California and on “Addiction and Its Impact on the Family System” at the Betty Ford Center in 1999. When she returned to the Tidewater area in 2004, Ms. Hunter again presented on “Adolescent Self-Mutilation” at the Annual Department of Juvenile Justice Conference.

     Ms. Hunter believes strongly in the importance of a holistic treatment approach which incorporates spirituality with principles of psychodynamic and humanistic psychotherapy. Her particular psychological interests include attachment theory, trauma-reactive behavior, neuroscience, and the neural mechanisms of emotion and behavior. She is a strong advocate of efforts to “peer into” the brain to assess functionality and synergy, and to invoke healing. She uses neurofeedback techniques to assist people in the self-regulation of brain function to improve focus, concentration, and emotional stability.
 

For a complete listing of Ms. Hunter's professional experience, click here.