Marriage and Family Therapist, MFC45091
My introduction into the world of psychology was one I fell into more than chose. I view my life as a ladder where each rung I climb, has led me to the place I am today. It started while growing up on the mission field in observing my parents helping people daily.When we moved to when I was 7, my parent never stopped helping people. People sought out my family for counsel, a home, or any need at all hours of the day and night.
I have always had a love for children especially those without families. I continued the family business in human services by going to an orphanage in once a month through out junior high and high school. In college, I worked with homeless children that lived in Skid Row. Many of these children had families but where surrounded daily by abuse, drugs, gangs and gunfire.
When I graduated from college with my B.A. in Youth Ministry, I went to work at The L.A. Mission. My experience at the mission was rewarding and I learned a great deal from the women there. I saw that the cycle of poverty, drugs, violence, and child abuse was going to continue in there lives, unless early intervention was done. As much as I had grown to love the men and women at the mission, I missed working with children.
I continued on my journey as a social worker, working with foster parents and children who had been removed from their homes. As a social worker, I realized that somewhere in the world of child abuse, reunification, foster parents, and group homes were children who desperately wanted parents and families who loved them. I also realized that my experience, education, and training had not prepared me for how to help mend a broken family. School had always been a challenge for me, to put it mildly. But, my friends would describe me as committed, and that I was. I went to Antioch University Los Angeles and received my Masters degree in Clinical Psychology with a Child Studies Specialization. It was through my studies, trainings, and relationships at Antioch that I began to learn that healing in families could really happen, and that the life of a child from a generation of violence, abuse, shame, and hurt could come to a place of healing.
While I joined the family business in human services as a young child, I have worked in the field of psychology since graduating with my Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. I am now a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. In my clinical practice, I work with children, adolescents, individuals, and their families. I am EMDR trained and work with issues relating to trauma, primarily in children or traumas that occurred in childhood. I have a special interest in working with foster and adopted children. I also work with parents on behavioral issues at home and at school. I was trained at the Love and Logic institute and am a facilitator for “Becoming a love and logic parent.”
I do some consulting with schools, parents, and child organization to develop behavior plans for home and the classroom, discuss children’s grief, or help parents prepare for adopting a new child.