Educational Background

BA: University of California, Los Angeles
MSW: University of Southern California

Vanessa Ramirez is a compassionate and dedicated bilingual Psychiatric Social Worker at Harbor UCLA Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic. Vanessa earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2012. She then began her career in social work as a Family Advocate for Full Service Partnership (FSP) at Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic in 2013. As a Family Advocate, Vanessa worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide case management and mental health services to severely emotionally disturbed children between the ages of 5 to 15, as well as the families and caregivers that support them.

In efforts to further serve vulnerable populations, Vanessa then obtained her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2017, with a concentration in Children, Youth, and Families. During her studies at USC, Vanessa received training in the following evidence-based practices: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP), Problem Solving Therapy (PST), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Attachment/Self-Regulation/Competency (ARC), SBIRT, and Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT). For her first-year internship at USC Vanessa was placed at Covenant House California, where she provided weekly individual psychotherapy to homeless youth between the ages of 18 and 25, who present with severe mental illnesses. Vanessa then completed her second-year internship at Harbor UCLA CAP, wherein she provided individual and family therapy to children, youth, and families. During her internship at Harbor UCLA, Vanessa received training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).

After obtaining her Master of Social Work from USC, Vanessa began working as a Psychiatric Social Work at Harbor UCLA CAP in 2017. She currently provides individual and family therapy to children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 21, as well as their families. Vanessa is certified in TF-CBT and PCIT and is part of the DBT treatment team