Brenda Miele Soares was appointed Vice President of Behavioral Health Services in 2015 after more than a decade heading the Mental Health Division at Advocates. She has enjoyed a long career as a therapist and social worker in the Greater Boston area, and in 1990 became Clinical Director at the former Alternative Home, Inc. of Newton, which merged with Advocates in 1999.
Brenda holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Emerson College and a Master of Social Work from Boston College. She is certified as an alcoholism counselor and a dialectical behavioral therapist, and received Level I and Level II certificates in Open Dialogue Approach from the Institute for Dialogic Practice in Northampton.
Over the last 20 years, Brenda has given papers and presentations on risk management and dialogical practice to conferences and symposia across the U.S. and in Norway. She and her 30-member team are the first in the U.S. to be certified to provide Open Dialogue services based upon a Finnish model that provides an alternative to traditional mental health approaches.
Brenda has also been a pioneer in instituting mental health services for men and women who are deaf through Massachusetts’ Deaf Blind Respite program. She is a board member and Secretary of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.
Outside of Advocates, Brenda is known for her work as a trainer of Newfoundland dogs for water rescue.