Ms. Vanessa Fernandez is the Clinical Director of the Clinical & Forensic Institute, Inc. (CFI), with offices in Broward and West Palm Beach, Florida. She is licensed to practice mental health counseling in Florida, Indiana, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts and the US Virgin Islands. She is also an International Certified Gambling Counselor and Board Approved Clinical Consultant.
After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Florida International University with her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, she worked with diverse populations including those suffering from co-occurring disorders, substance dependence, HIV/AIDS, gambling disorders, as well as the severe and persistent mentally ill and forensic populations prior to joining CFI. At CFI she has been trained in the assessment and treatment of individuals who have perpetrated sexual harm.
She is a member of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse, The National Council on Problem Gambling and the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. She operates from a Cognitive-Behavioral and mindfulness-based framework and provides the following services: Individual, Group and Couples counseling, assessment and screening for sexual offense specific treatment, mental health assessment and treatment, problematic gambling treatment, and compulsive behavior intervention. She provides all of the aforementioned services in both English and Spanish.