Work Experience

Positive Discipline Association
Certified Parent Educator
Teach this effective and respectful parenting program to parents of kids from toddler to teen.

Metropolitan Family Services
Speakers Bureau
Spoke to community groups about Metropolitan Family Services programs including Experience Corps, Foster Grandparents, and Project Linkage.  Experience Corps provides children with mentoring and tutoring and older adult volunteers the opportunity to use their life experience and skills to make positive contributions in their community.

International Network for Children and Families
Certified Parent Educator, Redirecting Children's Behavior
Teaching a five week course on Redirecting Children's Behavior in a variety of settings. Provide one to two hour workshops on specific parenting and family topics including – Parenting Youth Athletes, Baby Makes Three, Strengthening Your Child's Self Esteem and Compassionate Communication.

Youth and Family Assistance
Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Counselor
Provided crisis support on telephone hotline.

The Parent Center
Expressive Arts Day Camp Counselor, Santa Cruz
Using the format we developed at JFK, led a group of 10 & 11 year-olds through a week long expressive arts day camp. Funding for the camp was provided by Child Abuse Prevention Council and many of the children were referred because of their high risk family situations.

Adolescent Counseling Services
Counselor, Gunn High School, Palo Alto
Provided individual and group psychotherapy to high school students. Presenting problems included academic performance problems, bulimia, panic disorder, drug abuse, and adjustment to high school. Established the school's first therapy group for orthopedically handicapped kids (members included kids with cerebral palsy and severe speech impediments including one who could not speak and used a computer with speech synthesizer to communicate in group).

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Expressive Arts Day Camp Counselor
Led a group of elementary school children through a series of expressive arts modalitities. This two week day camp encouraged expression of emotions through art, and acceptance and honoring of others' work. Art modalities added since prior year included kite making, drum making/drumming, and symbol art/textile printing.

Children's Health Council
Research Assistant
Coded videotapes of preschool children as part of the process of development of an assessment tool called the Preschool Experience Game (PEG). The PEG's purpose is to examine children's perceptions of their daily experiences, ways of coping with daily stresses, and relationships at home and in group settings. Participated in inter-coder reliability testing and helped refine the coding system.

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Counseling Intern, Cupertino Union School District
Provided individual psychotherapy to ethnically diverse population of junior high and elementary school children. Presenting problems included difficult peer relationships, eating disorders, substance abuse, physical abuse/molest/family violence, depression, academic stress and anxiety.

John F. Kennedy University
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Expressive Arts Camp
Assisted professors in developing curriculum for a masters level class in Counseling Psychology degree program. The class developed and successfully ran an expressive arts day camp for children. Activities included mask making, clay work, movement/dance, talking sticks, dream catchers, storytelling, collage and more. Parent and child participant feedback was enthusiastic.

John F. Kennedy University, Community Counseling Center
Counseling Intern, JFK Community Counseling Center
Provided counseling in a clinic setting to families, couples, individual adults and children. Completed telephone intakes, assessments, and referrals. Presented cases to groups of colleagues for consultation. Taught parent education classes using STEP program.

Counselor Trainee, Montclaire Elementary School
Provided individual and group psychotherapy to elementary school students and collaborated with their parents, teachers, and principal to establish goals and develop treatment plans.

Stanford University, Department of Behavioral Medicine
Research Assistant – Worked on research projects in a series of eating disorder studies: ran subjects, coded and entered data, assisted in statistical analysis and write up of findings.

Marin Suicide Prevention Center
Hot Line Counselor – Answered suicide prevention hotline and handled crisis situations. Sent police to intervene in imminent attempts. Suicide crisis phones on Golden Gate Bridge were routed directly to Marin Suicide Prevention Center.  

University of Oregon, Department of Psychology
Relief Nursery, Preschool for Abused Children
Worked with physically and sexually abused children in a preschool setting. Participated in staff meetings to discuss children's behavior and interventions.

Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District, Camp Rivendale
Worked as a camp counselor in a recreational day camp setting with children ages four to sixteen with autism, Downs Syndrome and other developmental disabilities.

Education

John F. Kennedy University
M.A. Clinical Psychology, G.P.A. 3.93
Master's Thesis – Impulsivity and Emotional Eating in Binge Eating Disorder
Thesis Advisor – Dr. Kathleen Eldredge, Stanford University Department of Behavioral Medicine

University of Oregon
B.A. English