All Star Children’s Foundation Welcomes Two New Team Members

September 29, 2021 – Sarasota

All Star Children’s Foundation has welcomed two new professionals with expertise in childhood trauma to its staff. Mary Bane Stevens, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor. Renee St. Laurent, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, is a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. The two join a team of eight professionals whose expertise is in biological family engagement, clinical services, and trauma-informed care.

Mary Bane Stevens is a graduate of The State University of New York at Albany and Nova Southeastern University, where she earned master’s degrees in anthropology and mental health counseling. She has worked with individuals, couples, families, and groups for more than 20 years, providing strength-based and solution-focused counseling. She is also a certified Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) facilitator and trainer. This highly effective approach uses specialized techniques that provide a rapid method of reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in a safe environment that is free of distraction, judgment, or interpretation. TIR is also designed to help discover and erase the unidentified roots of negative feelings, emotions, sensations, attitudes, or pains that have a negative impact on daily life.

Renee St. Laurent obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Massachusetts in 2005. She worked in the field as a NICU and pediatric registered nurse for nine years before she completed her Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Missouri in 2014. St. Laurent has been practicing in community mental health settings, providing services for children, adolescents, adults, and women with perinatal and postpartum mood concerns.

Dr. Kristin Hoffman, All Star’s chief program officer, says that she’s “thrilled to have Mary Bane and Renee join our team. With these new additions, we can provide our children and families with unencumbered access to quality psychiatric and mental health care. Mary Bane and Renee add experience and depth of knowledge to our growing clinical team, and we are so happy to have them on board.”

All Star’s “Campus of Hope and Healing” includes the All Star Children’s Center, where trauma-focused clinical services are offered, six foster family homes that provide children ages 0-18 with a nurturing, family-style home environment and comprehensive, trauma-sensitive treatment, a clubhouse that includes a tutoring lab, two playgrounds, an organic vegetable garden, an outdoor movie theater, and a butterfly garden. At All Star, siblings are kept together, and parents and caregivers are offered a range of services. Children receive evidence-based interventions that not only help them cope with trauma they have experienced, but strengthen and build supportive, safe, and healing relationships with the adults in their lives. Enrichment programs at All Star provide children with opportunities for building competencies and resilience. All Star also equips foster parents with the training and skills required to deal with the challenges of traumatized children who have been separated from their biological families. Currently, All Star also serves children in the region’s child welfare system and their families.

For more information, visit www.allstarchildrensfoundation.org.