Theresa A. Kestly PhD

Theresa Kestly, PhD is a psychologist, educator, consultant and a registered play therapist/supervisor with the Association for Play Therapy. She is author of The Interpersonal Neurobiology of Play: Brain-Building Interventions for Well-Being, part of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. She maintains a private practice with specialties in play therapy and sand tray therapy in Corrales, New Mexico for children, adults, families, couples, and small groups.

Theresa served as a senior staff psychologist at the Albuquerque Family and Child Guidance Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she specialized in child, adolescent and family therapy, consultations with the Indian Health Service, and consultations with the Albuquerque Public Schools. She supervised psychology, counseling and psychiatry trainees as an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Mexico.

Theresa served as the first president of the New Mexico Association for Play Therapy. She is the founder and director of the Sand Tray Training Institute of New Mexico in Corrales, New Mexico where she provides large-group seminars and small-group intensive training for psychotherapists in child and adult sand tray therapy.