Meet our expert team of psychologists and advisers
Holly Rae Feen-Calligan, Associate Professor at Wayne State University, Coordinator of Art Therapy at the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC)
Ramona Ioana (Maldet) David, psychologist, psychotherapist, holistic therapist, trainer, coach
Arash Javanbakht, psychiatrist, serves as the director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC), associate professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University, expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and stress. I research trauma and treat trauma-exposed civilians, refugees, survivors of torture and first responders and veterans.
Wissam Kotait, Lebanese consultant and clinical psychologist who has been expanding his
work the past 2 years within Syria, through capacity building trainings on Protection issues and
through staff-care and self-care workshops. He worked and practiced in France for 6 years,
then returned to Lebanon in 2011 to establish his practice in his home country.
Meet the other experienced psychologists we work or worked with:
Costa-Teodor Scorțan – experienced clinical psychologists working with children and families – you can read more about him here: www.autismplus.ro and http://autismconnect.ro/profil/scortan-costa-teodor/
Ligia Marginean – psychologists working on a daily bases with children and families from the Sibiu psychiatry hospital for children
Cristina Teodorescu – psychologist at SOS Children’s villages Bucharest on a daily bases with children
Vivien Beere – qualified counselor, art therapist, adviser, you can read more about her here: about Vivien Beere
Jeni Chiriac – experienced clinical psychologists working with children and families, adviser – you can read more about her here: http://jenichiriac.ro/
Gorîn Ana Ecaterina, psychologist at Amurtel Panatau NGO, working on a daily bases with children
Top Advisers
In the last ten years, we worked with more than 6500 children and parents achieving extraordinary results,
Some of our closest advisers are among the most prominent in the world, including the internationally esteemed Adlerian family therapists, Francis X. Walton and Paul Rasmussen, both highly regarded authors of psychology books.
Both are educators and clinicians, with over 40 years, respectively 30 years of clinical practice.
Francis Walton has earned the title of “trainer of trainers”, while also becoming popular for his life-changing method “The Memorable Observation” that he uses with visible impact also during his live and recorded on-stage family counseling demonstrations – where he successfully helps parents understand the basis of their challenges. (More on Dr. Francis X. Walton here).
Paul Rasmussen is known for his large body of research in his early professional life, as well as his valuable work in the field of emotions. (more on Dr. Paul R. Rasmussen here)
The whole team, including some very dedicated volunteers, is doing its best to develop the best content for the animated series, VR movies, audio, pdf and printed books that will be available on app, balancing each episode with the right information.
Also, meet us, the intiators of the NGO and he main content creators:
Dragoș Iulian Matei
Producer of Emotional Intelligence theater shows for children since 2012, best selling author, entrepreneur in education, software programmer, successful writer for children and for the child within.
In May 2017, he founded Asociația Micile Emoții Mari – which translates as The Little Big Feelings Association – aimed to help underserved children living in foster homes or children from hospitals suffering from various diseases, including cancer.
In June 2016, Dragoș and co-authors Bianca Niță and Paula-Steluța Dobrinoiu published their first wonderful book, Miracol în Lumea Emoțiilor (to be published in English under the title When Miracle Meets the Emotions) – that became a bestseller, producing therapeutic results, achieving great feedback and reviews from children, parents, psychologists, neuroscientists, therapists and educators. The book was published only in Romania, currently being in the process of preparing to enter the international market.
Dragoș has worked extensively with children living in foster homes and low-income families in Romania. Experienced psychologists documented and acknowledged the positive results of his work with the children in difficult situations from SOS Children’s Villages Bucharest.
He worked with some of the best psychologists and parenting experts in the US and Romania.
In 2013, he won the Social Impact Award, Bucharest, (the public’s award for the project for emotional and social education of the children). He also won 5 more awards for the games and the software he developed for children.
Dragoș has worked with some of the best psychologists in the world and in Romania, neuroscientists, countless teachers and educators.
His work experience also includes serving as a Games producer and writer for the Zendoo project, now rebranded as Via Happiness, where he created a state-of-the-art software platform for building educational games for children aged 3 to 12. He also published educational games and apps for children, and has produced many movies, educational stories and theater plays for children and parents.
In April 2017, Dragoș has designed and held a workshop on Emotional Intelligence and how it can help in our professional and personal life, an event aimed at young adults working as trainers for children and adults.
He received his MBA from the Economic department of the Polytechnic University, Bucharest, Romania. He received his undergraduate degree, a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Engineering, Software, and Telecommunication, also from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania. He has worked for many years as a software developer and consultant.
You can find more about Dragos here.
Andreea Toma
Trainer, Educator, emotional intelligence and agility, human rights and feminist educator with more than 11 years of experience in working with adults, young adults, teenagers and children.
Andreea worked with some of the best organization in Europe and worldwide (Amnesty international and many others). She also has a great experience in working with Erasmus and Erasmus plus programs.
Currently, Andreea partners with Dragoș in designing solutions for the emotional wellbeing of children – especially children from foster homes and hospitals, as well as for their adult careers and the volunteers who assist in their recovery – by combining powerful storytelling, metaphors, theater, magic, animation, multimedia elements and VR as part of a dedicated team.
You can find more about Andreea and her work here.
Bianca Niță
Bianca joined Dragoș in 2014 as illustrator, copywriter, video and sound editor, and together they wrote and illustrated their wonderful book Miracol în Lumea Emoțiilor that managed to reach the hearts of thousands of children, some of whom already included it in their list of top favorites, among masterpieces of fiction, classic children’s literature and international best-sellers.
Currently, Bianca helps the team in designing solutions for the emotional wellbeing of children.
Bianca’s work in this capacity includes – designing the characters who metaphorically embody inner world representations (such as the Mind, Emotions, Focus, Challenge, Stress, etc.) – contributing with illustrations for the EQ live shows, games and animations, creating the text and visuals for the NGO’s marketing materials – managing the website content, social media page of the association and any digital marketing content – come up with ideas for storylines and storyboards.
Bianca also participated in a therapeutic Emotional Intelligence circle with two groups of children from SOS Children’s Villages Bucharest, one with children aged between 8-11 years old and the other with children aged from 11 to 13 years old, together with Dragoș, producer and Paula-Steluța Dobrinoiu, former clinical psychologist at SOS Children’s Villages Bucharest and actual Senior Care Assistant Trainer at Harino Care.
Bianca received her Master’s Degree in Multimedia and Audio-Video Production from The University of Journalism and Sciences of Communication, University of Bucharest. She received her BA in Public Relations, Advertising, and Journalism from the University of Communication and Public Relations National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA), Bucharest. She also received an additional Certificate in Psychological Pedagogy that allows her to teach communication-related subjects to children aged up to the 8th grade (14 years old).
Bianca worked as a Copywriter at the Pastel Advertising Agency, in Bucharest. She previously worked in public relations at Graffiti PR-BBDO, Bucharest.
You can find more about Bianca here.
Why us?
By using our unique and appreciated storytelling methods we have developed in years of performing Emotional Intelligence theater shows and refined during the process of designing our first book, we manage to create powerful adventure-tools that help children learn social emotional skills in a fun and truly meaningful way.
We aim to continue doing this wonderful job, perfect it with direct feedback from children, their adult carers, experts in psychology and education – and scale it to reach as many children and adults as possible.