Meet Sandra Chaves Dalton one of our Licensed Professional Counselors.
Sandra Chaves Dalton, LPC, MA, holds over 25 years of experience providing health-related services to individuals and families. Her first part-time job as a teenage clerical assistant in a warm professional medical office led her to pursue her college education in the field of psychology and Spanish. Observing the professional warmth with which several pediatricians and their staff addressed and provided care and guidance to children and their families cemented her desire to help others through challenging times as well as celebrate successes. Her interest in the medical field grew, leading her to become an EMT. In this capacity, the effects of stress and the unknown on patients and their families directed her toward psychoeducational counseling and case management. She found herself working with people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness and their families to achieve ways of staying in the community and avoiding long-term hospitalizations.
She then pursued her master’s degree in counseling psychology and obtained her license as a Professional Counselor, enabling her to provide both therapeutic counseling and case management as needed to individuals rapidly. Sandra joined a non-profit agency where she was able to provide services to a range of clients from teenagers to older adults. Her skills were developed in several areas, ranging from groups to individual therapy, and from couples to family therapy in school, home, and office settings. She learned the value and importance of professionals supporting each other to better support clients through a wonderful mentor.
Sandra has always valued education and finding other ways to understand and meet the needs she observed affecting clients. She then pursued certification as a school counselor, gaining a better understanding of the public education system in terms of its offerings as well as its limitations. She observed and provided group and individual therapy to students for socialization and the development of coping skills.
Through the years, Sandra has experienced a range of changing personal circumstances, as do all individuals. She has been able to appreciate the growth from each moment of challenge and celebration her clients (and she) have been through. Gratitude for the many blessings bestowed among us and the strength and knowledge she can share with individuals drive her continued desire to support others through changes and circumstances to achieve their best self and happiness.
Sandra’s therapeutic approach is based on meeting each client where they are and tailoring the therapeutic interventions to them. Her treatment modality is primarily based on CBT and mindfulness while informed by principles from other modalities.
She is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in reading and writing in Spanish. Sandra has worked with a variety of Spanish speakers and recognizes that dialects and word meanings can vary significantly, having provided services in the Newark and Paterson/Passaic areas.
