Dr. Eliana Gil is a bilingual, bicultural MFT who immigrated to the US as a teenager. Partly because she experienced the frustration of incorporating into a community without knowing the language, she has always treasured alternative forms of communication, including the expressive arts.  She has spent her professional life focused on two specific topics: the prevention and treatment of child abuse as well as the use of play therapy with children and families. She has a special interest in encouraging professionals to consider enlivening the work they do with families, couples, young adults, teens, and children. Specifically, Eliana believes that the expressive therapies can provide a different way to make emotional connections between family members, introduce laughter and play which tends to motivate repetition of rewarding experiences, and decreases the typical hesitancy thet many individuals can feel in therapy.  She is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, a Registered art and play therapist, and continues to oversee a private practice in Fairfax, VA which provides mental health services to individuals with trauma histories.