FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Joanna Bunker, LICSW
Licensed Independent Social Worker, Clinical Supervisor
She/Her
“I employ warmth, compassion, and humor in my approach and take the time to practice curiosity around—and appreciation for—who my clients are—both in, and outside the treatment space. I would love to get to know you.”
Joanna is a dedicated, experienced Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) from Worcester, MA, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Bay Path University, and a Master’s degree focused in Justice-Based Social Work from Wheelock College (now, part of Boston University). Joanna has a demonstrated history of working in the individual, group, and family treatment services industry through a Health At Every Size (HAES), intersectional, attachment, neurobiological-informed, and trauma-focused lens.
Joanna has completed trainings in Sensorimotor Arousal Regulation Therapy (SMART), Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and the Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC) treatment framework.
Joanna has worked in various local nonprofit agencies since 2007, beginning her career in the human services field working at The Bridge of Central MA, Inc. (now, Open Sky) where she remained for ten years, serving first as a residential counselor in a co-ed adolescent DBT program for youth referred by the Department of Mental Health (DMH) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Joanna went on to become an Assistant Program Manager, helping to open a 6-bed young adult residential program to facilitate the reintegration of individuals from Westborough State Hospital into a safe, supportive, community-based treatment setting. Joanna wore the additional hats of Day Program Coordinator and Medication Coordinator during this time.
During graduate school, Joanna co-facilitated social skills groups for both latency-aged and adolescent individuals receiving services from the Department of Mental Health, and provided individual youth support services twice weekly via home and community-based therapeutic recreational activities. She also worked for two years in Worcester Public Schools as an Instructional Assistant in their Structured Therapeutic Education Program (STEP), where she provided assistance to the classroom teacher and other certified personnel (including school-based program Clinician) to support the instruction of students with moderate to intensive special needs and to facilitate educational access for students presenting with a range of cognitive, social/emotional, and behavioral challenges.
Joanna completed a year-long Clinical Internship at Walden Behavioral Care, in both their Worcester and Milford locations, providing adult clinical case management, group facilitation consisting of DBT, relapse-prevention, body-image, CBT, & therapeutic meal support at the Partial Hospitalization (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient (IOP) levels of care.
Joanna also completed a Clinical Internship at Justice Resource Institute (JRI), after which time she was hired as a full-time Clinician at a Residential-Education program where she Provided trauma-informed individual, group, and family therapy through the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) framework, working first with adolescent males, and later with latency age boys and girls struggling with histories of complex trauma, emotional dysregulation and learning difficulties. This program used the ARC Framework developed by JRI’s Trauma Center, which assists youth in developing internal core strengths, building strong positive attachments, self-regulation and competency skills. It is a treatment model developed to provide guidance for thoughtful clinical intervention with complexly traumatized youth. During her time as a Clinical Intern, Joanna had the pleasure of supporting youth enrolled in The Trauma Center at JRI’s “Trauma Drama” program, an 18-week tertiary treatment intervention addressing trauma through improvisation and associated theater games.
Joanna comes to Metrowest Nutrition from Advocates Community Counseling, where she provided outpatient and school-based individual and family therapy using a variety of therapeutic modalities tailored to fit the needs of clients. While at Advocates, Joanna began, and continues to run a monthly consultation group for Clinicians/clinical staff to learn about how to best serve the needs of individuals struggling with disordered eating, weight, and body image concerns through a HAES lens. She is a professional member of the Multi-Service Eating Disorder Association.
Trauma
Anxiety & Mood Disorders
Eating Disorders
Weight/Body image concerns
HAES
Self-Injury
