As a consultant I focus on diversity, strength-based training/consultation in school , community and business settings. I believe understanding and utilizing the differences among us strengthens our businesses, communities, and families. Services include direct work with clients, staff training, and strategic planning. As a supervisor, I bring experiences of working with clients/students at community agencies, higher education settings and rural and urban school districts. Coming from a marriage & family therapy background, I have worked not only with adult individuals but couples, families and adolescents. I bring a systemic, holistic perspective that focuses on building a positive supervisory relationship with interns as well as staying focused on strengths based approaches in viewing clients. Relational, Narrative, Solution Focused and Systemic approaches guide my clinical work and supervision. I believe cultural context is important and includes not only ethnicity, but gender, spirituality, social class, sexual orientation, disability, age, etc. In this way, culture may emerge in the counseling and supervision relationship in various ways. Thus, I view myself as always moving toward being cultural responsive which allows for a more genuine therapeutic and supervisory relationship. My education background is in Counseling Psychology, Educational Psychology and Marriage & Family Therapy. I am a current LPC Approved Supervisor and Consultant on issues of diversity in mental health and education. I have published, presented, and provided training on topics including:
Solution Focused and Narrative Therapy with Multicultural Populations
Solution-focused Education
Cultural Identity and Acculturation
Strength-based Counseling and Supervision
Anti-Bullying Strategies with LGBT and Ethnic Minority Adolescents
Latina/o Education and Cultural Characteristics
Strength based education and counseling
Latina/o and Chicana/o Psychology