My name is Diane Curran. I am a married mother of 2 and have lived in Charlotte for 16 years. I love to read, watch reality TV shows, and play Bejeweled Blitz online. It was my great fortune to begin working with Carolina Parenting Solutions in June 2009.

The path I took to working with infants, toddlers, and young children has been a winding one! After graduating from SUNY Brockport in western NY, my plan was to teach elementary school. The job search was difficult, but led to me gaining employment as a Pre-School Teacher. At the same time, I worked part time in a group home with adults with developmental disabilities. I continued this type of work when I moved to Charlotte and was employed working with adults with autism. I loved working in the community based setting, but did not feel I was in the right place, yet. As a result, I went back to school and earned my Masters Degree in Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill. After completing my internship in a school based mental health program I realized two things: I love working with children within the context of their regular lives and I love helping families with the stresses and struggles of parenting children with behavioral, developmental, and emotional challenges. I continued this type of work at CMC Behavioral Health Center as a Psychotherapist in the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit, Outpatient Therapy department, and School Based Services. During my time with CMC, I was able to gain a great amount of knowledge and experience in working with families and children with a wide variety of challenges. An opportunity then arose for me to serve as a School Social Worker and I took it, but it was short lived due the budget crisis. Luckily, my friend and colleague, Jessica Kossick, told me about this wonderful place where she was working called Carolina Parenting Solutions! I was excited about taking on a new opportunity and learning more about the challenges facing the youngest children in our community and their families.

Thanks to Carrie Reinecke and the wonderful bunch of therapists at Carolina Parenting Solutions, I have been given this wonderful chance to learn and grow in my knowledge and ability to serve very young children while still being able to assist elementary school age children and their families with the challenges that life throws at them.

*I have been awarded Mastery Certification for The Basic Course on Greenspan DIR/Floortime Approach (tm)