Being where the other is. Putting ourselves in our kids' shoes. Seeing life through their lens. Maria goes deep on how we build empathy and connection with our kids to help them heal and thrive.

Maria Nanos, LCSW, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer of the Greenlight Family Services. Dr. Nanos received her Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work from the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago and her masters in social work at Jane Addams, University of Illinois. Dr. Nanos’ clinical career began in 1987 focusing on children and families of sexual abuse and neglect in the Chicagoland area. Dr. Nanos rapidly moved into managerial positions supervising programs in areas of mental health, child abuse, sexual assault, DCFS investigations and more recently grandparents raising grandchildren. Dr. Nanos is an avid advocate for human services in Chicago and is a frequent presenter at conferences and trainings. Dr. Nanos is an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago in the Masters program and has a part time clinical private practice. She has consulted with many agencies in Chicago thus reaching thousands of families.

Dr. Nanos is a native Chicagoan who enjoys most outdoor activities, travel and nature. She resides with her family in Evanston.

Greenlight Family Services (formally known as Center for Law and Social Work) has been preserving families, providing hope and protecting lives throughout the State of Illinois since 2003. Our mission is to achieve the best outcomes for families, young adults, and children by providing the highest quality services. In the beginning, Greenlight focused on providing legal assistance for the growing population of grandparents raising grandchildren. Each year, Greenlight strategically expanded its legal and social services.

In 2017, Greenlight acquired Porchlight Counseling Services and added specialized sexual assault therapy to our array of crisis counseling services programming. These services exist to help college sexual assault survivors achieve healing and wholeness and to create a world in which a person’s life is not defined by the devastating experience of sexual assault. The program provides counseling, advocacy, and other supportive services to the survivors of campus sexual assault, with the goal to provide high-quality, long-term counseling at no charge to the client.

In 2019, Greenlight expanded its services and moved its main office to the South Side of Chicago to better serve its foster care and post adoption families where they live. Greenlight also opened a Springfield office to better serve the southern region of the state of Illinois.

Today, Greenlight manages the Heart Gallery of Illinois and Adoption Listing Service for the state of Illinois and provides relative, non-relative, second parent, step-parent, adoption services as well as DCFS foster parent adoption and post adoption services. Greenlight provides services for more than 7,000 families and young adults each year.

https://greenlightfamilyservices.org/

https://greenlightfamilyservices.org/heartgalleryofil/

https://www.facebook.com/GreenlightIL

https://www.instagram.com/greenlight_il/?hl=en

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.