Our Story
Well Family Marian Place/Well Baby Center began in 2008 as a parenting center with a focus on supporting early childhood and maternal mental health. It has grown over the years to serving thousands of children and their families, couples, adults, and teens. In addition, we have provided specialized clinical training to hundreds of therapists and social workers in infant-parent, maternal, and family mental health. Our free community events continue to provide parents with social support, known to be vital in the early years of parenthood. Our hybrid model combines therapy, mindful parenting programs, and community-building to ensure the wellbeing of our families.
Our mission is three-fold:
- Delivering affordable, quality mental health and parenting support services to children, families, and adults in the community.
- Developing the mental health and social work workforce with specialized infant-parent mental health training programs for master’s and doctoral level clinicians.
- Partnering with other family services organizations to create a community wellness hub.
Affordable child and adult counseling, parent-child
groups, and parent education in person or online.
Statement of Purpose
Well Family attends to the needs of struggling families and children by providing accessible prevention and early intervention programs with a focus on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH).
Healthy early relationships are the cornerstones of all infants’ emotional, cognitive, and physical growth and development. In addition to providing clinical services and parenting education we provide free weekly events to encourage emotional and social support, the single most important protective factor against family dysfunction and despair.
We believe that when parents mindfully reflect on their interactions with their children, three things occur: they don’t burden them with their own unresolved childhood issues; they help them reach their full developmental potential; and they help them build lifelong relationships with others.
Our Impact
This is a meaningful moment in our organization’s history.
For the past seventeen years, we have been funded by a combination of our founder’s multi-year commitment, fees for services, our board members, individual donors, and grantors, including Cedars-Sinai’s Community Benefit Giving Office.
Our direct impact. Since opening in 2008, our direct impact has been serving over 1800 individuals and families. From 2021 through 2023, we provided over 400 clients and their families with more than 12,000 sessions. A vast majority of majority of these clients were low-income.
Our indirect impact. Our indirect impact includes referrals to our sister agencies –Venice Family Clinic, Venice Community Housing, Southern California Counseling Center, Reiss-Davis Institute, UCLA’s Women’s Life Center, Postpartum Support International, Airport Marina Counseling Service, Maple Counseling, and the Wright Institute.
How do we know we’re making a difference? More than 25% of our families report that they were referred by family, friends, or past clients. We also conduct pre- and post-treatment assessments to quantify our efficacy and positive outcomes. We have collected surveys for years which indicate that most clients report improved family functioning, increased understanding of their child’s developmental needs, and decreased feelings of isolation.
New Location! Well Family/Well Baby, 847 Venice Blvd, Venice CA
Meet Our Team
Staff
Deborah Groening-Rother, PsyD
President and Founder
After completing a long psychoanalysis in the 1980s to heal from a difficult divorce and to make myself whole again, I was convinced that in-depth therapy should be available to all, regardless of one’s economic status, so I set out to create a non-profit clinic that applies this model in a more accessible way, without diluting any of it’s effectiveness.
Psychodynamic therapy, which is derived from psychoanalytic theory, begins by exploring one’s early life and how these experiences may have influenced one’s sense of self, one’s life choices, and one’s relationship to others. Well Baby, now Well Family, has offered westside families the opportunity to do this deep inner work for more than fifteen years. As Well Family, we aim to expand our innovative approach to serving those most urgently in need of care.
Donna Rabin
Executive Director
I joined Well Family Marian Place just before the pandemic, when the fragility of our social and familial structures revealed how many of us do not have a safety net. Every mother and child deserves access to the resources needed to thrive. It is gratifying to be part of the work of Well Family/Well Baby in providing families with the emotional support they need.
Leslie Gilliam, LMFT
Clinical Supervisor
As an experienced and compassionate licensed psychotherapist and supervisor, my goal at Well Family Well Baby is to support our clinical staff as they help their clients release harmful patterns and process past pain toward their recovery.
Scarlett Pacheco
Administrative Manager
As Administrative Manager at Well Family Marian Place/Well Baby Center, I ensure smooth operations so our counselors and families can focus on what matters most creating a warm, supportive space where every family feels welcomed, understood, and cared for.
Lidia Garcia
Scheduling Coordinator
I am the first point of contact between clients and therapists. My goal is to provide an organized, responsive, and professional scheduling process so clients can be seen as quickly as possible.
Counselors
Jillian Plotner, LCSW
Counselor and Clinical Manager
For as long as I can remember, I have had an inherent curiosity and fascination with people and their stories. Using a play-based and child-led approach I am able to enter your child’s world and make sense of their stories so they can appreciate and understand themselves better.
Steffi Jones, AMFT
The experiences of being an immigrant and a mother have greatly shaped my approach to therapy. I believe we all have our own strengths and resources – it’s often just a matter of discovering them. I create a caring, non-judgmental space that nurtures this discovery, and helps connect us to ourselves and others.
Ivana Holiastos, AMFT
The integration of multicultural living experiences, the experience of motherhood, and extensive work with children and families has led me to the field of psychology. As a result of my rich and varied background, I gravitate towards diverse client populations and look forward to working with you.
Jenna Pfefferle, AMFT
The pain you’re feeling does make sense in some way. I will work with you to discover it’s meaning and to learn other ways to feel safe. In my work with children and families our focus is on strengthening our personal relationships so our lives become more satisfying.
Cailey Rodgers, Counselor
I try to create a safe space for both my child and adult clients, where they can show up as their whole, authentic selves. Beginning my career working with children with neurodevelopment differences, I have learned to find moments where I might inject humor, creativity, and a sense of compassion into the process as we attempt to do our deepest work together.
Ruth Vasquez Velasquez, Counselor
I try to create a safe, welcoming space for both children and adults, enabling me to effectively guide them toward self-awareness, emotional literacy, and self-compassion. My approach uses a multicultural, relational, and empathic lens where we can explore any and all feelings that may come up in the here and now as we progress through our work together.
Curtis Allmon, Counselor
Of utmost importance to me is helping my clients foster self love and self compassion. To accomplish this we explore the experiences that have shaped them, the ways that they have related to others in the past, and how they might become more in tune with their emotions so they might express their feelings with authenticity and love.
Andrew Weber, Counselor
I am passionate about helping my clients make sense of where they’ve been, where they are, and where they want to go. Working with both adults and minors, I focus on building a strong therapeutic relationship grounded in trust and understanding.
Board of Directors
Deborah Groening-Rother, PsyD
President & Founder
Deborah holds a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapy, with a specialization in Early Childhood Development from Antioch University (MA) and Ryokan University (PsyD). Her professional focus has been primarily mother/child, family, and marital relationships. She founded Well Baby Center in 2008 to broaden her impact and reach. As part of her succession plan, Deborah plans to continue to oversee the transition to Well Family Marian Place and to facilitate its new mission: to expand services, accessibility, inclusivity, and responsiveness to community needs for the most disenfranchised.
Paul Rother Treasurer
Chair, Finance Committee
Paul Rother has been in the technology industry as a business owner and computer programmer his entire career. He is now focused on Well Family Marian Place because he believes in its mission of providing equal access to mental health services. As Treasurer (and pro bono IT) of Well Family Marian Place, Formerly Well Baby Center, Rother aims to instill accountability and efficiency in all matters related to the organization’s fiscal health and to ensure the organization has access to the latest technologies.
Cynthia Ambres, MD, MS
With over thirty years as a physician executive, Cynthia Ambres has influenced healthcare across the spectrum. Always an advocate for nutrition-based wellness, her executive experience includes: EVP Kate Farms; KPMG Partner- Global Healthcare Center of Excellence; President Lifetime Medical Group; SVP Blue Cross/Blue Shield; Chief Medical Officer- Kaleida Health System; Chairman Emergency Services- Beth Israel Medical Center. She hopes to democratize accessibility to wellness, including mental health, sustainability, and nutrition education.
Kathy Cohen
Kathy Cohen has been in high tech sales and marketing for 10 years, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics. She is the president of a charitable family foundation and contributor of the book, Raising Emotionally Healthy Children. Her greatest accomplishment has been raising two successful daughters. She hopes to pay it forward by contributing to Well Family Marian Place as a member of the Development Committee, making sure all families have what they need to not just survive, but to thrive.
David Cohen
David Cohen has been part of the technology start-up SoCal marketplace for over 35 years, launching several companies in strategic partnerships with the world’s leading telecom and technology firms. As Board Director and as a member of the Board’s Finance Committee, he is able to share his vast strategic expertise with Well Family as it embarks on its major expansion project.
Advisory Board
Ed Tronick, PhD
Director, Child Development Unit, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Chief Faculty, University of Massachusetts Infant-Parent Post Graduate Certificate Program.
Dorie Weiss, PhD, QME
Clinical Psychologist in private practice specializing in performing childhood developmental assessments.
Alessia Gottlieb, MD
A Neuropsychiatrist, Co-Medical Director of the UCLA Child and Family Trauma Center.
Tandy Parks, RN
A parenting group leader who has run mindfulness-based parenting classes for over 20 years.
Richard Cohen, PhD
Richard Cohen has spent over 40 years working with young children and families as a teacher, researcher, administrator, and advocate.
Bonnie Yates, Esq.
A children’s rights attorney with over 40 years’ experience specializing in special education and disability law.
Diane Reynolds, MFT
An infant-parent early childhood mental health specialist trainer and leadership coach.
Financial Data
In addition to contributing their time and expertise, we are proud to report that in 2023, 100% of our Board of Directors made meaningful donations to support the work of Well Family Marian Place.
Click links to view Well Family Marian Place’s 2024 Financials, 2023 Financials, 2022 Financials, 2021 Financials, and 2020 Financials.