About Dr. Arlene Brett Gordon
Arlene Brett Gordon, Ph.D., is a solution-focused, strength-based systemic therapist. She collaborates with her clients to explore solutions to their unique challenges. Her work engages children, couples, families, and elders as partners in creating positive change. These rich experiences have consistently embraced the uniqueness each client brings.
Arlene is inspired by all she’s learned in her long career working with children and families in highly diverse contexts. Her professional journey began as a first-grade school teacher in New York City; she then moved to Florida’s Nova Southeastern University School before practicing and teaching family therapy. For decades she has trained mental health professionals working with families and helped clients living with medical challenges and chronic illness.
She is a Florida Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (1998), Clinical Fellow of the American Association of Family Therapists (AAMFT), and a Florida State and AAMFT Approved Supervisor. During her 16 years as director of the Brief Therapy Institute at Nova Southeastern University’s Department of Couple and Family Therapy, Dr. Gordon taught and supervised clinical training for masters and doctoral family therapy students. She has integrated mindfulness tools into her professional work as well.
Her clinical practice has been profoundly influenced by Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), especially through collaborating for 15 years in large community projects with SFBT’s cofounder Insoo Kim Berg and providing SFBT trainings/consultations to communities nationally/internationally. As a forever teacher, Arlene provides solution-focused education to mental health professionals working with schools, courts, and medical settings.
Solution Oriented Focus:
- Children, Couples, and Families
- Family Reunification
- Medical Family Therapy
- Chronic Illness
- Elder Considerations
- Trauma Informed Care
Supervision for AAMFT Approved Supervisor Designation