Yinka (Anthonia) Gansallo-Lawrence is a ‘Michigan Institute for Infant Mental Health Endorsed Infant-Family Mental Health Associate (IMH-E), a licensed TLLP child and family Psychologist, Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network- Child Mental Health Professional (CMHP); Qualified Behavioral Health Professional (QBHP); certified Early Childhood Education/ABA/Curriculum & Education Policy Advocate with Michigan Parent, Advocate & Attorney Coalition (MiPACC), a statewide group focused on student-centered advocacy.
She is also the founder of Developmental Care Network, Inc. A thriving licensed 501©3 non-profit organization based in Michigan, USA.
She oversees and coordinates yearly outreach and awareness programs to promote and educate various community networks with families about the importance of Early Childhood Mental Health, Autism Awareness, Social Emotional Disturbances, Developmental Disabilities, Post Diagnosis Treatment, Child and Family Mental well-being, and Cancer Awareness Initiatives, while also offering a support group for families.
Being a mother whose daughter also graduated from Early Intervention services, and a clinician/specialist with over 19 years of experience on both sides, she carries with her a vast wealth of clinical, research, and personal experience from the home front, that has enabled her to easily connect with families and caretakers of children with emotional/behavioral disorders, diagnosis, and disabilities.
Her non-profit platform caters to developing person-center planning therapy, teaching simple floor time play-and-talk therapy, illustrating coping strategies, and completing assessment and treatment plans for children while also catering to the mental well-being of their families.
She also supports and reinforces parents’ ability to seek appropriate care, advocates for mother-child bonding through each parent’s strengths, and embraces any emerging parenting competencies by introducing positive parent-infant/child interactions.
Her education initiatives aim to educate families of children with special educational needs on specific topics relevant to their advocacy efforts, which also include access to equitable opportunities; educational benefits while also driving systemic change.
Yinka is the facilitator of ‘over 15 different infant/young child and family-centered support groups and 5 ongoing thriving events that promote weekly inspiration of hope forum. This is basically dedicated to discussing and analyzing concerns about cultural biases, the stigma associated with children’s mental health, and autism, support for families with personable literature of understanding the diagnosis, and treatment plan development for challenging behaviors while providing a safe faith-based hub for families to connect with each other to share coping mechanism.
You can also learn more about her passion for writing as an outlet and recovery space for surviving cancer, promoting hope and love during treatment, and issues of attachment, separation, trauma, grief, and loss on her inspirational blog: ‘Moving Forward With Yinka’ www.anthonialawrence.com or connect with any of her ongoing community-based projects: www.project50andbeyond.com