About

BIO

Nancy Jarrell O’Donnell MA, LPC, CSAT, CCTP has worked in the field of behavioral and mental health for 25 plus years. Her career flourished while employed for 15 years at Sierra Tucson, a licensed acute care level one psychiatric hospital and level two treatment facility. Her passion and diverse skill base provided her the opportunity to work as a therapist in a variety of positions ranging from family therapist, primary therapist, grief therapist, equine therapist, program manager and ultimately she was promoted to Clinical Director. She developed several specialty clinical programs and has facilitated workshops in varying venues across the country and is an international presenter on trauma, grief, equine assisted psychotherapy, and addiction.

A published author, on the topic of traumatic grief, Nancy’s book The Loss of Lacey can be found here: Amazon  She has also written for multiple professional magazines on topics ranging from equine assisted psychotherapy to neuroplasticity as a new paradigm driving treatment plans in residential facilities. After resigning from Sierra Tucson in 2011, she opened a private practice to further research and refine her emerging treatment model which stems from the philosophy that unresolved trauma is at the core of behavioral and mental health issues and that addictions, depression, anxiety, and more are symptoms of unprocessed trauma. For the next four years she expanded her research on neuroscience and further studied the impact of the brain on human behavior. Her studies allowed her to begin providing clients with neuropsychotherapy which incorporates neuroscientific findings with targeted interventions for symptom resolution. By 2014 Nancy had completed her development of a new model of treatment based on current neuroscientific research and designed to keep current with social, cultural, and societal changes.

Nancy and her husband, Jack O’Donnell began searching for properties to develop her vision of a residential treatment facility that provided nurturing, compassion, empathy, and clinical expertise to help those who are suffering trauma and resulting symptoms through focus on neuroplasticity. Nancy ultimately co-founded and developed all aspects of a start-up 50 bed residential behavioral health facility Sabino Recovery.

As an owner and operator of Sabino Recovery she was able to test her model which demonstrated strong success with residents in a 35 day program. She was able to realize her vision. She left the company however in June of 2016 and is no longer involved in the operation of the facility.

She is the author of THE SABINO MODEL: Neuroscience Based Addiction and Trauma Treatment™. Nancy’s vision has resulted in effective treatment for hundreds of individuals.

Having lost a child, Nancy also works with bereaved parents as she understands the traumatic grief of this tragedy and what she calls “a loss like no other.” The genesis of her treatment model was driven by her personal journey of traumatic loss and her passion to help those who are suffering. Through helping others she finds some comfort in the loss of her daughter by honoring her through the practice of kindness and empathy as Nancy says “my daughter possessed these traits.”

Today Nancy continues her work in her private practice in Tucson as a Neuropsychotherapist, a Psychotherapist, Equine Assisted Psychotherapist, and a Clinical Supervisor. She provides customized workshops and private intensives for individuals and couples, provides consultation to treatment centers, facilitates assessments for The University of Arizona Athletic Department, and continues as an Author, and National Presenter. Her versatility includes development of start-up residential and in-patient behavioral health facilities, policy and procedure writing, compliance director, clinical director, program development and implementation, JCAHO and CARF, business model development, and treatment facility management and operation.

For more information or to speak with Nancy please email: njotherapy@protonmail.com.

Please visit my non-profit The Lacey Jarrell Foundation, also known as Green Star Art at https://greenstarart.org. We support youth with an interest in the arts through educational scholarships and more.