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Leslie W. Baker, MFT, NCC, RPT-S, has over 27 years of experience as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a National Board-Certified Counselor and a Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor. She is the CEO/executive director of the Therapy2Thrive® Ruby Hill Marriage & Family Counseling Center in Pleasanton, CA, which provides counseling services to the community. Leslie is a Certified Gottman Therapist and integrates play therapy with all ages.

She is co-owner of Academy for Play Therapy Training, Inc.™, a training program for mental health professionals providing workshops and supervision for clinicians seeking to become registered play therapists. Leslie is a trained Suicide Bereavement Clinician and has volunteered for the past seven years with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in San Francisco Bay Area as a keynote speaker at the Survivors Day conferences in the Tri-Valley Area.

She is also a speaker for the Annual Suicide Prevention Conference for the Tri-Valley NAMI and Family Resource Center in CA. Leslie is the author of Healing Feelings: A Healing Story for Children Coping with a Grownup's Mental Illness and is author of Therapy in the Digital Age as a guest in Integrating Technology into Modern Therapies: A Clinician’s Guide to Developments and Interventions, edited by Dr. Jessica Stone. Leslie is an experienced local, national and international speaker on topics including suicide assessment and prevention, technology in therapy, play therapy, trauma and Gottman couples therapy.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial:  Leslie Baker maintains a private practice. She is an author for Yorkshire Publishing and receives a royalty.  Ms. Baker receives a speaking honorarium from °ÅÀÖÊÓƵ. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Non-financial:  Leslie Baker is a member of the American Counseling Association; and the Association of Play Therapy.  

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