Briana has her Bachelors of Liberal Arts in Psychology from the California State University Long Beach and her Master of Science in Developmental Psychopathology from the University of Reading, England. The University of Reading is ranked in the top one percent of universities worldwide and allowed Briana the opportunity to do some research in the area of trauma. Briana has a post-graduate certificate in Psychosocial Rehabilitation from Boston University as well as some advanced training in modalities such as CBT and Brainspotting. Briana is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Licensed Addiction Counselor in the state of Colorado and is a Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner through the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

Briana began her career with a passion for chronic and persistent mental health and worked at three different inpatient psychiatric facilities in Southern California. Briana worked as both a psychiatric tech as well as a Case Manager in these hospital units. She had the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team with psychiatrist, medical doctors, nurses, and other professionals and learned the importance of working as a team and integrating multiple perspectives as well as getting a great understanding of chronic and persistent mental illness.

Briana learned that while hospitalization and other higher levels of care serve an important role in stabilization, folks require more individualized support to achieve true psychosocial wellness.

Following graduate school Briana then found her role at the Life Adjustment Team in Marina del Rey, California where her passion for psychosocial rehabilitation was started. LAT was one of the first companies in the country, who was doing PSR in a private setting. Briana learned and has integrated into her practice the Life Adjustment Teams model of 7 Domains, 7 Principals, and 7 Needs.

Briana moved to Colorado and continued her work with folks in this capacity in private practice for several years. Briana was then recruited to work for Elements Behavioral Health, a nationally known and respected leader in residential treatment. At the time, they operated programs such as Promises Malibu and The Ranch. As a National Director of Clinical Outreach this allowed her to support families and clients who struggled with mental health or SUD to find residential treatment to support their journey to recovery. This also allowed Briana to forge strong relationships with local and national programs and providers.

Briana also served as a founding volunteer for 5280 High School. A project-based learning charter school in Denver Public Schools. Briana was able to give back to her community by supporting the start of Denver’s first Recovery High School program for kids that struggle with substance abuse and mental health.

Following this, Briana moved over to Director of Marketing and Admissions at a premier trauma-integrated Intensive Outpatient Program. Here Briana was able to continue those relationships with providers across the country as well as continue to help clients and families develop the most appropriate treatment course. Briana also served with the leadership team to help develop the clinical programming, and help grow the company to expand the reach of helping clients.

Briana had a strong desire to return to PSR, the most meaningful work of her career and bring this service to people in the Colorado community and that is how Sanare was born. Briana is a California girl at heart and loves being a dog mom, traveling the world, live music, shopping, and swimming.