My bio

I returned to college as a 're-entry' student, in my late thirties, married and with three growing kids. I started out at Junior College taking G.E.'s when my youngest child entered the public school system. After two years of intense course work and thinking I would pursue a nursing degree, I transferred to UCSC. In two more years I graduated with a BA in Feminist Studies, a unique program and one of a few in the country. This degree focused on systems thinking and intersectionality. During my last year at UCSC I became curious about the individual in society, and began asking questions about how we as individuals negotiate and navigate systems in society. I continued on in my education to get a master’s degree but not in nursing, in counseling psychology. Three years later, I received my Master's in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco just as my eldest child graduated high school.

Both USF and UCSC are rooted in social justice methods and practices which orient one towards systems thinking. And this is where I find the individual, as a part of multiple systems. We are not solely an "I" in the sense of an individual. The first system we are born into is our family system, complete with all of it's history, known and unknown, spoken and silenced. Moving out from the family we have a community, a neighborhood, this may include schools, places of worship, work or fun. Then we have our broader society, cultural narratives, social bias, assumption and stereotype. Systems thinking has not always been inherent for the field of psychology and it has been made richer by expanding the context of the individual experience. This is also in agreement with current neuroscience of attachment and connection and co-regulation. 

Both of my academic degrees, as well as my lived experience, tend to the intersections of human identity; gender, race, class, sexuality, location, citizenship, religion, ability. These intersections are at the root of a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to therapy.  As individuals, couples, partners, parents, families, community members, we contend with all of these social markers on very real and intimate levels.

Hence, Audrey Lord's quote: The Personal is Political. 

For therapeutic purposes we get curious about how these intersections impact us, challenge us, how do we negotiate barriers, and more. 

Education:

Master's Counseling Psychology, University of San Francisco

Bachelor's Feminist Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz

Ongoing Education: 

Sessions, with Esther Perel, an online platform to built relational intelligence from a multidisciplinary lens.

Professional Trainings:

Somatic Experiencing

EMDR, Trained by EMDRIA 

NeuroAffective Touch

Trauma Informed Sex Positive Therapy

Professional Affiliations:

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), Member

Santa Cruz Chapter of CAMFT, Member

United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP), Member

Northern California Somatic Experiencing Professional Association, (NorCal SEPA), Member