Training & Experience
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I have over 15 years of professional experience in various formats working with individuals, children, and families, and I bring a great deal of knowledge and passion to my work as a therapist. Whatever struggles they bring to work on, my clients can feel confident that I have the education, experience, and disposition ideally suited to guide them as they move toward their full potential. Please read below for a more detailed account of my training and work history. |
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Over the years I have been priviledged to offer counseling and therapy in partnership with
several distinct Bay Area community-based organizations to offer a variety of individually tailored, effective,
high quality mental health and wellness services; these organizations are grounded in social advocacy with
stated emphases in equity, social justice and accessible forms of support. Currently I am working with adults, youth, couples and families at the Berkeley Therapy Institute.
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During the 2021-2022 academic year I greatly enjoyed serving students at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, through the Wellness Services program. Students are eligible for 8 therapy sessions per year, in addition to groups and other wellness services paid for by your included triannual wellness fee.
More info can be found at the CIIS Wellness Center link. |
For the 2020-2021 academic school year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with elementary school students, families, and the staff that support them at Sheridan Elementary School in San Francisco, through the nonprofit organization Seeds of Awareness. This school is unique among others in the SFUSD school system for its attention to the social emotional wellbeing of the diverse students and families it serves.
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I enjoyed and learned a great deal from my time at the relationally-oriented clinic PSC. Individuals, partners, and families in the Bay Area can reach out for psychotherapy services to the Psychological Services Center, a low fee counseling center located in the Tenderloin/Civic Center area of San Francisco. Call or email to inquire further or to schedule an initial suggested $0 phone intake and/or $40 in-person consultation session at their offices.
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For over 6 years I supported individuals, partners, families, and youth offering private and confidential psychotherapy at the Liberation Institute, a low fee counseling center located in the Mission District of San Francisco. Call or email to inquire further or to schedule an initial suggested $20 in-person consultation session at their offices. To my knowledge, this clinic offers services with the lowest sliding scale fee in the bay.
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I was also very pleased to be working with the students and families of Rooftop Elementary/Middle School through the queer and social justice-focused after school program CASA (Children's After School Arts); CASA families can request ongoing therapy, participation in therapy groups, or short term guidance for students offered by the incredible Laurel Elliott, AMFT. Laurel has a MA degree in Drama Therapy and is trained in restorative practices.
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Education.
Doctoral. I am currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). I entered the program in 2019 with advanced standing, and anticipate that I will complete my degree in 2024. This degree will allow me to expand my skillset to have a broader impact on the people, communities, and systems I work with, including the ability to administer complex psychological assessments, consultations, and professional development towards social change. Masters. I was trained in Counseling Psychology at the Masters level at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. My specialization in Community Mental Health, along with a grant to study from the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63), aids me in discerning the many ways in which systemic oppression and inequality can keep children and adults trapped in repeating destructive cycles, oftentimes through the generations. I believe it is only through first recognizing the systemic forces affecting us that we can begin to cultivate the ability to choose a new--and more joyful--way of living our lives. Bachelors. With a previously obtained Bachelors degree in Art Therapy as well, I am always looking for each client's inherent and individualized creative instincts. All too frequently I find that these instincts have been buried under an onslaught of struggle to survive and adapt to ongoing present-day pressures and crises. When dug up and rediscovered, however, it is often these very resources of creativity that end up being central components to breaking the chains that imprison us. |
Work Experience.
Professionally I have been privileged to have worked with folks from ages four to seventy-five in a variety of settings. I have experience working closely with neurodiverse children and adults; have assisted hospice, HIV/AIDS, and cancer patients and their families during illness and the death, dying, and grieving process; have spent time working on the campus of public K-8 schools (both as a teacher and a therapist); and also have enjoyed offering private and confidential psychotherapy to adults, children, families, and couples at a number of mental health clinics in the Bay Area. This variety of experience provides an excellent groundwork for me to build upon as I work with diverse clients to overcome the difficulties in their lives. Whatever the challenges you, your family, or your community are facing, I'm prepared and honored to face them alongside you. |
Selected Trainings
- Strategies for Healing in Sibling Sexual Abuse Cases, Safer Society Foundation (2024)
- Non-Monogamy as Liberatory Praxis, Dr. Han Ren (2024)
- Gender-Affirming Care, The Pacific Center (2024)
- Gender in All its Splender, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft (2023)
- Minority Stress and Substance Use, Dr. Hannah Bosley (2023)
- Understanding Psychopharmacology, Dr. Robert Dolgoff (2023)
- Introduction to Internal Family Systems, Linsay Preston, MFT (2023)
- Existential Psychoanalysis and the Treatment of Psychosis, Dr. James Norwood (2022)
- Therapy for Eating Disorders, Dr. Jen Casper (2022)
- Jung: Symbol, Dream, Archetype, Anima & Animus, Dr. Tonya Downing (2022)
- Trauma Series, Dr. Rachel Goldman (2022)
- Couples Therapy & Trauma, Dr Stephanie McWoods (2022)
- Liberation Psychology: Origins & Applications, Dr. John Carson (2022)
- Attachment in the Clinical Setting, Dr. Nathan Nguyen (2022)
- Dreams, Myths, & Metaphors, Dr. John Carson (2022)