When choosing a psychologist to work with your child and family, it is important to find someone you "click with" and like. It also can be helpful to know about their training and background. Here's a brief introduction.
Allison Pinto describes herself as explorer, an optimist, and somebody who loves grappling with ideas and challenges. As a family member, she is a life partner, a daughter, an auntie, and more recently a grandmother. With regard to her identity, she is a middle-aged white, non-Hispanic, cisgender straight woman who is a U.S. citizen and is monolingual English-speaking, raised in the Episcopal church, and of a family and community that is increasingly diverse. Over the past 15 years she has felt the greatest sense of belonging and community attachment in the neighborhoods where she has lived, which are predominantly Black neighborhoods in Sarasota and St. Petersburg, Florida. She keeps in mind that each of these aspects of her identity has implications for how she expresses herself, takes action and is experienced by other people in the world today.
Professional Background and Credentials
Allison Pinto is a licensed child psychologist (FL PY 7193) with specialized training and over 25 years of experience in infant mental health, psychological assessment, child and family psychotherapy, and community approaches to children's mental health. She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at UCLA, which has a rich history as a public land-grant research university and is ranked the #1 clinical psychology doctoral program in the United States. She completed a clinical internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior . She also completed the intensive 2-year Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health directed by Dr. Connie Lillas through Cedars-Sinai Medical Center . As a registered psychologist, she joined Daniel Siegel, M.D. in private practice and contributed to early efforts leading to the creation of the Mindsight Institute.
As a licensed psychologist in California, she served as Training Director at the Saint John's Child and Family Development Center in Santa Monica, overseeing the training of child psychologists and supervisors in the clinical internship program accredited by the American Psychological Association. She established an Early Childhood Assessment and Treatment Clinic within the Center and was an active partner in city-, county-, and state-wide efforts to promote infant mental health in California. She also directed the Consultation / Liaison Service associated with the John Wayne Cancer Institute and Margie Petersen Breast Center, providing consultation and psychotherapy to families of parents with cancer. In Oakland, she served as Training Director at WestCoast Children’s Clinic , where she was responsible for overseeing the APA-accredited internship and post-doctoral training program, with a focus on innovative community-based service delivery and the treatment of complex trauma.
In Florida, Dr. Pinto served as an Assistant Research Professor at the Florida Mental Health Institute of the University of South Florida, providing consultation to communities across the country seeking to develop Systems of Care for Children's Mental Health. She also coordinated a nationwide effort to increase awareness about the mistreatment of youth in private residential treatment facilities, consulting to state and federal policy-makers seeking to address the phenomenon and testifying before Congress . She joined the staff of the Family Study Center and the faculty of the Psychology Department at USF St. Petersburg (USFSP), where she developed and led community initiatives featuring restorative practices, the science of early childhood, and neighborhood-oriented approaches. She continues to teach graduate courses in the USFSP Infant-Family Mental Health certificate program.
Dr. Pinto worked at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County , facilitating community change efforts to promote healthy early childhood development throughout the county. In this role, she established and led the Infant Mental Health Learning Circle for cross-sector Early Childhood professionals. She also directed the Communiplexity Initiative, a collaboration involving USF faculty and students as well as local residents and staff in nonprofit, military, and governmental agencies in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties. Through SCOPE, a nonprofit community engagement organization in Sarasota, she designed and directed neighborhood and community data initiatives. She served as team psychologist for the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Clinic at the Florida Center for Early Childhood. She also established Sarasota Community Studio, a non-profit neighborkid-oriented community change organization created with fellow neighbors of the Central-Cocoanut neighborhood of Newtown in Sarasota, Florida.
At the national scale, Dr. Pinto served on the Training Task Force of ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, providing training to cross-sector networks in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California. She also served on the APA Presidential Task Force on Psychological Needs of U.S Military Service Members and Their Families.
As a resident of St. Petersburg for six years, Dr. Pinto maintained a clinical and consulting practice with a focus on infant and early childhood mental health, place-based initiatives, and systems / community change. She served as resident facilitator/director of Lake Maggiore Neighborbaby Initiative, a place-based effort formed by neighbors coming together around babies and kids. She served on the Advisory Board of the Florida Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems initiative, a statewide collaborative focused on cross-sector efforts, and facilitated related workgroups on Early Childhood Policy and Social-Emotional Development. Through USF and the Florida Department of Early Learning, she led a statewide capacity assessment of supports for Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH), followed by community capacity building efforts for IECMH equity. She also served as lead facilitator for the readiness and transition phases of a place-based community collaborative in Wimauma, Hillsborough County, and as policy consultant to place-based efforts in Overtown, Miami.
Dr. Pinto now maintains a private practice focused on positive, relationship-oriented, placed-based, and culturally responsive approaches to children's mental health and community well-being. She also is a partner in Centering Community, a social consultancy that collaborates with neighbors, nonprofits, philanthropies and public sector organizations for whole community thriving.