Darci Nelsen, PhD, BC-DMT, LMHC, is a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over a decade of clinical experience across diverse settings, including inpatient psychiatry, community-based outpatient therapy, and special education. Her clinical work has focused on supporting children, adolescents, and families as they navigate developmental trauma, neurodevelopmental challenges, foster care, and adoption. Beyond her clinical practice, Darci provides consultation and supervision to emerging clinicians and graduate counseling students. Her research has focused on amplifying the voices of individuals with lived experience in foster care and adoption through arts-based methods, with a particular emphasis on relational permanence. She also serves on the Research & Practice committee for the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA).
Director of Clinical Training and Teaching Faculty
MA in Dance/Movement Therapy: Concentration in Couple and Family Therapy Program
- PhD, Expressive Therapies, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
- MA, Mental Health Counseling with a Specialization in Dance/Movement Therapy, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
- BA, Psychology, Purchase College (SUNY), Purchase, NY
- Nelsen, D. (2025, March). Working with Adult Adoptees in Counseling. Invited presentation at Myrtha Counseling Center, Ottawa, Ontario.
- Nelsen, D. (2024, September). Adoption-Informed Therapy: Understanding Adoption Trauma in Child Therapy. Invited presentation at CIIS, San Francisco, California.
- Nelsen, D. (2024, May). Working with Adult Adoptees in Counseling. Invited presentation at Myrtha Counseling Center, Ottawa, Ontario.
- Nelsen, D. (2023, October). Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy. Invited presentation at Cambridge College, Cambridge, MA.
- Nelsen, D. (2019, November). Introduction to Dance/Movement Therapy. Invited presentation at Tufts University, Medford, MA.
- Nelsen, D. (2018, November). Introduction to Dance/Movement Therapy. Invited presentation at Tufts University, Medford, MA.
- Research & Practice Committee Member, American Dance Therapy Association
- Public Relations Committee Member, American Dance Therapy Association