About Us
Our Story
At Painted Brain, we believe every mental health challenge has a hidden strength
Painted Brain (PB) was founded in 2005 as a community-based project and became a 501(c)(3) in 2016.
PB has been a leader in innovative peer-driven services over the past decade.
PB is a unique mental health organization in that many of our staff self-identify as living with direct or indirect experiences of mental illness.
Our peer staff are subject matter experts who specialize in providing population-centered training, programming, and events to meet the specific needs of those we serve.
More about PB’s Peer Run Business Model
What we Do
Our Programs and Services
PB offers a variety of programs focused on supporting the mental health communities of Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Tri-City Counties.
Arts & Empathy
Art groups are utilized to create a sense of belonging and community. When we use art groups, we bring hope, communication, creativity, and opportunities for participation to Artists, Adults, Youth, and Families.
Mental Health
Social Workers support individuals in navigating complex systems, both the internal psychological system and our society’s under-resourced public services systems.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists support Adults, Youth, and Families experiencing functional limitations due to their mental health and develop health-promoting habits and routines.
Training
Workforce development education and training are provided in the following areas: digital health literacy, peer support specialist, social media, art, and industrial arts.
Years of experience
Social Workers Trained
Clients Served
Clinical Team
Occupational therapists
Occupational therapy is a client-centered health profession that works with individuals to improve their functional participation in daily activities.
“Occupation” can be thought of any activity people occupy their time with, including self-care, work, social participation, and community involvement.
Read More on Occupational Therapy’s Holistic Perspective on Mental Health
Occupational therapists help clients experiencing functional limitations due to their mental health develop health-promoting habits and routines, so that they can do the things that they need to do, want to do, or are expected to do to the best of their abilities.
Occupational therapy services at Painted Brain also serve the pediatric, adolescent, and teenage populations.
Occupational therapists work with this population to assist in sensory development (the ability for a child’s nervous system to receive inputs from sensations and have an adaptive behavioral and motor response), caregiver-child bond, reaching developmental milestones, social skills, and participation in school-related activities.
About Our Clinical Team
Social Workers
As a profession, Social Work is by far the most diverse among mental health professionals, seeing both the person and the social and political environment in which they reside as opportunities for intervention.
Social Work helps people navigate difficult systems, both the internal psychological systems in our heads and the under-resourced public services systems of our society.
Intern/Externs
A vital part of Painted Brain’s intention to change the way we think about mental health is in training the next generation of Social Workers in the peer model and in the use of arts and community in mental health recovery.
In our history, Painted Brain has trained more than 60 social workers through our academic year internship, since 2009.
We partner with UCLA, CSUN, CSULB, Sacred Heart, Smith College and USC to provide internship experience and training.
PB also offers Level II Fieldwork experiences to occupational therapy students from Southern California, including
- USC Chan Division of Occupational Therapy,
- California State University at Dominguez Hills OT program,
- West Coast University OT programs.
In this fieldwork setting, student receive remote supervision for 12 weeks to participate in direct mental health intervention with clients, interdisciplinary team meetings, group activities, outreach, and community based interventions at our center.