Slavica Kojadinovic, LCSW

Slavica Kojadinovic, LCSW, is a co-founder, Co-chief Clinical Officer and Co-chief Executive Officer of ConnectionsFirst. 

 

Slavica is originally from Bosnia & Herzegovina (former Yugoslavia). She completed her undergraduate and graduate schooling in Portland, Oregon, with a strong interest in studying embodied connections of trauma and shame as driving forces of complexity of human expression and suffering. She has over 25 years of experience in the helping  profession working with a diverse range of individuals, couples, and families through difficult life transitions.

 

Her years in learning many theories of working with human experiences of trauma and shame have resulted in a deep orientation that our truth, our stories, the wisdom to our salvage lie in the integrity of our bodies. When we learn to listen to our nervous system we get to heal through an ongoing learning of its vulnerabilities, transparency, and desire for integrity. And as  such we develop stronger connections with self and interpersonally. As a result we then get to create a healing and flourishing community.  

 

In addition to providing adult individual and group mental health therapy, Slavica provides clinical and licensure supervision, consultations and training for her staff and for community service providers. She co-developed a treatment approach she named Connections Informed Care and teaches this approach to her clinical team.

 

Slavica tailors treatments by intermittently applying “bottom -up” and “top- down” focused somatic mindfulness, experiential, psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, and strength based approaches.

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She is trained in:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level 1 by Dr. Richard Schwartz

• Compassionate Inquiry training by Dr. Gabor Mate

• The Daring Way by Dr. Brene Brown

• Brainspotting by Dr. David Grand

• EMDR by the EMDRIA institute

• Evidence-based Yoga practices for mood management and trauma by Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, YACEP 

• (introduction to) Polyvagal theory by Dr. Stephen Porges

• (introduction to) Interpersonal Neurobiology theory by Dr. Daniel Siegel

 

She currently does not take new patients.