I grew up in Palo Alto and now live in Redwood City with my little dog, Dede, who loves to patrol our backyard to keep the squirrels, cats, and raccoons at bay. They are a wily bunch, so keep her on her toes! Pickleball is my new interest and that is what keeps me on my toes:) I also enjoy golfing, traveling, painting, and spending time with friends.
After a decade selling trust and investment services, I refocused my career to align with how I wanted to be of service in the world. Over the years, I have worked in many different settings, which has given me a breadth of knowledge to drawn upon.
My background includes working with in the following outpatient psychotherapy settings; Danbury Hospital, Smith College Student Health Center, and Mills Peninsula Medical Center’s Adolescent, Adult and Senior Intensive outpatient/Partial Hospitalization programs.
From there, I spent the next 9 years working in Employee Assistance and HR at Wells Fargo and Concern: EAP, providing consultation on a wide range of issues, including performance problems, emotional struggles, interpersonal conflicts, disability, navigating internal and external systems, as well as critical incident response support.
For 6 years, I ran a home care agency, where I had the privilege of helping people age in place with dignity. I also co-facilitated some of the Stanford Parkinson’s Caregiver support groups. Both experiences gave me a deeper understanding of the challenges people with neurological conditions face.
I spent the next 7 years as a Clinical Social Worker at Stanford’s Neuroscience Health Center helping with patients and their families navigate living with neurological conditions, such as dementia, Parkinson’s, and stroke. My next role was in Primary Care as the Behavioral Health Clinician, providing short goal directed term therapy. After Stanford, I rejoined Concern as their Director of Clinical Services.
As a side project, I am part of a research team at Stanford University that is exploring the use of psilocybin in treating severe treatment resistant depression. We recently completed a study in collaboration with the VA and the preliminary results are very promising. Here is a link to additional information (https://med.stanford.edu/exploratorytherapeutics/about.html).
Avenidas Caregiver conference- Making the most of your Medical Appointment (2016)
Stanford Neuroscience Supportive Care Caregiver Workshop- Practical Strategies for Long-Term Planning (2016)
Multiple Systems Atrophy Coalition National Conference- Practical Strategies for Long-Term Planning (2018)
Stanford Huntington’s Disease Conference- Building a Care Team (2019)
Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Participant Day conference- Building a Care Team and Understanding Long Term Care Insurance (2019)
Stanford Huntington’s Disease Virtual Education Day- The Nitty-Gritty Q&A with Social work and Genetic Counseling (2022)
Center of Psychedelic Therapies and Research (CPTR) Alumni Association- Psychedelic Medicine in Practice Panel (2023)
American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Annual Conference- An Open Label Study of the Safety & Efficacy of COMP360 synthetic psilocybin in Veterans with Severe Treatment-Resistance Depression (Poster 2023)
MSW, Smith College School for Social Work (1995)
BA, Scripps College (1984)
LCSW #19012 (1998)
Compass Pathways Psychedelic Assisted Therapist Tier 1 (2022) (https://compasspathways.com/our-work/therapist-training/)
CPTR Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research Certification (2023) (https://www.ciis.edu/research-centers-and-initiatives/center-for-psychedelic-therapies-and-research)
MAPS MDMA 100-training Certificate (2023) (https://maps.org/2016/01/29/mdma-therapy-training-program/)
Beckley Psychtech 5 MeO-DMT Research Therapist Certification (2023) (https://beckleypsytech.fluencetraining.com/)
CITI GCP Human Research Certification (2021)
ADHD Clinical Services Provider Certification (2023)