Beyond Burned Out: Resilience Strategies for Child Life Professionals

Dr. Daisy Velez is a bilingual (Spanish-English) licensed clinical psychologist specializing in health psychology. She earned her Doctor of Psychology degree at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Her psychology internship was in medical/health psychology at University of Florida Health Science Center/UFHealth Shands. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in consultation and liaison psychology at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, specializing in trauma psychology at Ryder Trauma Center, Level I trauma hospital. Dr. Velez has previously worked for the VA Health System and the U.S. Navy as a contractor through the Department of Defense.

She is currently serving as the Medical Trauma Psychologist supporting the trauma surgery team at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, an adult Level I and pediatric Level II trauma center. She provides inpatient care for patients and families following traumatic injury and is able to offer limited outpatient follow up treatment. Dr. Velez also supports the training of medical and psychology graduate students, as well as facilitates support for healthcare staff involved in the trauma service.

Brittany Spaeth, MS, CCLS is the Child Life Manager at The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. Brittany has her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology-Child Life from Utica College and her Master’s degree in Child and Family Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been certified since 2006 and also serves on the ACLP Benchmarking Data Committee.