Who we are
More than a nonprofit. A community wellness ecosystem.
The Therapeutic Play Foundation was founded on the belief that healing is not individual, it is communal. Everything we build, fund, and deliver is designed to strengthen the conditions where communities thrive.
Brain Well-Being Model
The Framework Behind Everything We DoThe Brain Well-Being Model is the clinical and community wellness framework that underpins all of TPF’s programs, training, and community care work. Developed by Nakeya T. Fields and stewarded by Innovative Wellness Consulting, the model identifies four interconnected domains that shape how individuals and communities experience well-being.
Somatic
How the body experiences and holds stress, safety, and healing. Our programming addresses the physical dimensions of well-being through movement, nature, and sensory-based experiences.
Perceptual
How people see themselves, their communities, and their potential. Our work challenges deficit-based narratives and builds asset-based identity and community pride.
Relational
How connection, trust, and belonging support healing. Collective Care is built on the understanding that relationships are not a soft feature of wellness, they are the foundation of it.
Aspirational
How hope, vision, and future orientation contribute to resilience. Our programs cultivate leadership, agency, and the belief that thriving is possible.
The Brain Well-Being Model is the basis for TPF’s Wellness Labs, Community Play Dates, F.L.O.W.S. Resilience Studio, and the broader Play Now. Thrive Later. community wellness initiative. For training, certification, and organizational implementation of the model, visit Innovative Wellness Consulting.
Nakeya T. Fields (LCSW, Founder & Executive Director)
Founder of the Brain Well-Being Model® and author of Play Now. Thrive Later®.
Meet our team
Jocelin Rodriquez
Jocelin has worked in the ECM field since 2023, but before that she was working with children and families in a preschool setting. That's where she got her start in a classroom setting and moved up to enrolling children and working with families to complete goals. Prior to that she was in an office setting as an assistant. A fun fact about Jocelin is that she plays the piano at church and knows how to play the guitar.
Amber Helphingstine
Amber has experience as a Lead Care Manager and Street Outreach Case Manager, providing Enhanced Care Management (ECM) services to individuals experiencing homelessness and other high-risk Medi-Cal populations. Her background includes care coordination, community outreach, client advocacy, resource navigation, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to help clients access medical, behavioral health, housing, and social services. A fun fact about Amber is that she enjoys volunteering on the production team at her church, where she serves as a camera operator and stagehand.
Alex Villalba
Alex Villalba serves as the Senior Manager of Community Programs, supporting the development of peer-driven programs and community-rooted approaches to perinatal mental health. They are a certified full-spectrum birthworker, prison doula, gender transition doula, lactation education specialist, and are trained as a domestic violence counselor. Alex's work is grounded in trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and community-centered care, with a focus on supporting queer and trans parents through reproductive and life transitions.
Nakeya T. Fields, LCSW, PPSC, RPT-S
Nakeya T. Fields is a licensed clinical social worker, consultant, educator, and nonprofit executive who helps organizations strengthen programs, develop their workforce, and integrate well-being into everyday practice. Her work combines clinical expertise with hands-on organizational leadership, curriculum development, and community-based implementation.
Give a helping hand for needy people.
OUR PARTNERS
Play Now. Thrive Later. is TPF’s signature community wellness initiative. Play is not what we do after we finish the important work. Play is how the brain learns, heals, and builds the resilience it needs to face what comes next. Play Now. Thrive Later. is our commitment to communities, that the science of play, connection, and collective care belongs in every school, clinic, community center, and family home that wants it.
The initiative brings together Community Play Dates, Wellness Labs, Community Resilience Studios, Community Wellness Leaders, and the Brain Well-Being Toolkit into a coherent, community-rooted approach to lifelong well-being.
OUR impact
What community capacity looks like in practice.
Impact at TPF is not measured in programs delivered or sessions completed. It is measured in the capacity communities build to sustain their own well-being long after our work together is done.