About the Trainer...

Reina Remigio, PhD, (she/ze) is a second-generation Filipino-American who identifies as non-binary in gender with a femme gender expression. Reina is passionate about and specializes in working with individuals with overcontrolled coping (OC) styles and internalizing disorders, commonly known as silent or invisible suffering, a struggle that is all too familiar for folx within the global majority, and more specifically, with regard to this presentation, the AAPI community. Reina is intensively trained in Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT), an evidence-based framework designed for OC that can present as overthinking, masking, rigidity, emotional loneliness, and mental health disorders, such as refractory depression, chronic anxiety, restriction-based eating disorders, and obsessive compulsive personality disorder. Reina initiated and is the lead organizer for the RO DBT Trauma special interest group that focuses on elucidating and exploring the internalized trauma process in OC and attuning treatment interventions to the threat sensitive biotemperament that is characteristic of OC occurring in concert with trauma-impacted heightened threat states.

Over the last 15 years working in the mental health field, Reina has had the honor and privilege of working together with patients struggling with diverse and complex psychological health issues across the lifespan (i.e., chronic mood and anxiety disorders, suicide and nonsuicidal self-injury, substance and process use disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, trauma, grief, and medical conditions) in intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, primary care integrated behavioral health, inpatient, forensic, residential, skilled care, and community mental health settings. Reina held various leadership positions and provided supervision and training to clinicians and staff in those settings. Most recently, Reina served for 3+ years as Clinical Director of a comprehensive primary mental health IOP/PHP center in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she oversaw and supported clinical care, a highly skilled and expert team of clinicians, program development and outcome measures to help ensure gold standard whole-person care attuned to each patient’s needs and goals. She co-developed the RO DBT program, collaborated within treatment teams, with special attention to the eating disorder and addictions teams, and provided direct clinical care to patients and their family systems.

Reina is also trained in Focused ACT, CPT, MI, and DBT. She provides family reunification therapy with Sage Family Reunification, a group practice she co-founded with a couple of brilliant and compassionate colleagues. In addition, Reina volunteers for HAND of the Bay (Helping After Neonatal Death), a non-profit, all-volunteer led organization supporting parents who have experienced early miscarriage, stillbirths, and early infant loss. She and her dog are on the training journey for Canine Good Citizenship to therapy dog one day, and she enjoys a competitive game of classic and new versions of Uno with her family..