A Little About the Founder

As we get closer to launching Strata, we’ll be introducing the clinicians who will be part of the practice. I’ll start by introducing myself.

I’m Jennifer Barna, LCSW, founder and therapist at Strata Wellness Collective.

I’ve been a social worker for about 15 years and have worked in a pretty broad range of settings along the way - foster care and residential programs in New York, residential treatment in California, school-based work here in New Jersey, and private practice. I’ve also spent a good portion of my career supervising clinicians and working in clinical leadership.

Most recently, I worked at Synapse Integrative Behavioral Health in Marlton, formerly Jennifer Christmas, LCSW, where I provided therapy and clinical supervision.

These days, my clinical work is primarily with adults, with a particular focus on trauma and the patterns and experiences that can keep us stuck.

In 2019, I completed my EMDR training and later became EMDRIA Certified. I actually found my way to EMDR because I was frustrated. I was working with clients who had insight, were doing the work, and were still getting stuck. I wanted to understand why, and I wanted more ways to help.

That training changed the way I practiced. I started thinking much more about what was happening beyond insight alone and began incorporating more EMDR and somatic work into therapy.

For more than five years, I’ve also been incorporating EMDR and somatic approaches into work with clients during ketamine experiences. Most recently, I became a certified ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) facilitator.

The way I practice has changed quite a bit over the years as I’ve learned more, worked with different populations, and found different ways of approaching the work. A lot of that thinking eventually made its way into what we’re building at Strata.

I graduated from The College of New Jersey with a degree in Clinical and Counseling Psychology and received my master’s in social work from Bryn Mawr College.

Right now, I’m spending a lot of time getting Strata ready for October, seeing clients, and building the kind of practice I want to work in.

You’ll hear plenty more from me around here, so we can leave it at that for now.

Hi, I’m Jen. Nice to meet you.