Savannah Self

Background

About Savannah Self

My ongoing effort is to serve children, youth, caregivers, and families - especially those in the military community - as an allied health and psychosocial care professional. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, I am educated and trained to provide psychosocial care and support through Child Life services in times of stress due to hospitalizations, grief and bereavement, illness, injury, trauma, and military life stressors. Through a number of avenues - including education, play, non-pharmacological pain management, and psychological preparation - Child Life comes alongside children and families to promote resiliency skills, positive coping, and developmentally appropriate understanding and mastery over stressful experiences and trauma. It is my desire to be a collaborative part of early childhood print and broadcast media, evidence-based practice research, and non-profit partnership to promote family engagement and children's psychosocial development to build kinder, more inclusive and resilient communities. My career interest and personal goal is to explore, research, and practice Child Life in alternative and community settings. Settings of interest to implement and research Child Life services include humanitarian aid/NGOs, foster care, hospice services, the performing arts, early childhood broadcast media and literature, and military-connected community services to successfully manage and cope with a unique set of stressors due to crisis and trauma. Whether it be healthcare, broadcast and print media, or community psychosocial services, I am striving to find opportunities and pave new paths to implement and develop Child Life programming in alternative settings to promote the physical and emotional health and well-being of children, youth, and families.