My Background

I am a Licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY 27570) in California and live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I spent my graduate school days in Gainesville at the University of Florida and finished my training in the VA system in Chicago and San Francisco. After my fellowship in health psychology, I worked with at-risk veterans in hospitals, their homes and SROs (even parks and boats!) on an interdisciplinary team at the VA in San Francisco (our team was highlighted in this book). Then, after about 5 years, I started to feel the call to work with and serve with immigrants as a way to connect with my own values; I was hired at the public hospital in my county - the San Mateo Medical Center. To better connect with and serve a mostly Spanish-speaking population, I learned biofeedback - an intervention that speaks the universal language of stress recovery - as well as how to deliver therapy in Spanish. I am now choosing to turn towards full-time private practice with the intention of embracing a slower, more mindful lifestyle, pursuing new professional projects and honing my therapeutic craft.

I feel so deeply satisfied and grateful to work with others as a psychologist whether I am mentoring other professionals or working with patients directly. I treasure therapeutic relationships as well as the trust my patients give me. I’ve also found over the years that taking my own personal work seriously keeps the therapy I deliver fresh ~ being in my own therapy has been part of this journey as has a long-standing meditative practice, learning how to regulate my own stress-related physiology, regularly consuming psychological research, publishing clinically-relevant journal articles and generally staying current with new innovations within my field.