Christina Mecca-McClory

Christina D. Mecca-McClory, LCSW (she/her) is a holistic maternal health practitioner, clinical behavioral health social worker, and Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is a Texas native with a professional background in the career fields of architectural drafting and design focusing on sustainable living and mental health environmental design, and in social services assisting children and families and cultivating maternal mental health. She obtained her BSW from The University of Kansas and MSW from the University of Texas at Arlington. Christina’s central research theme is focused on the brain-body-environments’ connection to maternal mental health and the origin of dis-ease. Her research interests include the study and development of somatic therapies that are rooted in both evidence-based science and tradition to treat early-childhood complex PTSD, and merging with the field of epigenetics researching the connection between the gut micro-biome, mental health, and dis-ease during pregnancy to determine the effectiveness of nutritional and environmental therapies.