About Dr. Sonna

Dr. Sonna is a psychologist and author. She held licenses as a Marriage & Family Therapist in Texas. In New Mexico, she held licenses as a Professional Clinical Counselor, School Psychologist, School Counselor, Teacher of Modern Languages, and Teacher of English as a second language.  

In her clinical practice in Dallas, Dr. Sonna specialized in counseling children for 10 years, then in treating chronic, low-functioning patients with borderline personality disorder. On moving to Mexico in 2005, she trained the city and state police to handle emergencies involving citizens suffering from mental disorders, and specialized in counseling multicultural couples. 

In addition to her private practice, she taught psychology and interpersonal communication for the Dallas County Community College District, psychology and human development at the University of New Mexico-Taos, served as professor of multicultural counseling for Yorkville University's online master's degree program in Canada, and taught pastoral counseling for Interfaith Academy in Mexico.

Dr. Sonna authored ten parenting books, wrote a nationally self-syndicated column for a decade, has won contests for her short fiction, and her poems and essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. She taught creative writing privately and at the community college in Taos, and presented writing workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and La Manzanilla, Jalisco. Dr. Sonna has resided in San Miguel de Allende since 2005.

Her latest book, Tortillas & Peanut Butter: True Confessions of an American Mom Turned Mexican Smuggler, details Dr. Sonna's mother's adventures as an expat in Irapuato, Guanajuato. Dr. Sonna felt compelled to write this Amazon top-10 bestseller in biography/memoir, humor, & solo travel to help English-speaking expats learn more about their adopted country. To that end, she tucked cultural information between the chuckles.  When a number of enthusiastic readers announced that they had scheduled their first trip to Mexico to visit long estranged expat relatives and friends, she became convinced that by enhancing attitudes toward Mexico and Latino culture, her book could help combat the "build that wall/oust those immigrants" mentality infecting the U.S. Accordingly, donates 20% of the profits to the ACLU, a champion of immigrant rights.

See her full vita for more information.