About

“Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.”
— Linda Hogan

Photo by Ernesto Rodriguez

About

Being a psychotherapist is more than a job; it is a calling. My own suffering, losses, fears, and search for meaning led me to this profession over thirty years ago. Since then, I have worked as a therapist and counselor in a variety of settings including K-12 schools, urban community mental health, higher education and private practice. 

In 1998, I was introduced to the School of Lost Borders a small nonprofit dedicated to wilderness rites and nature-based healing. Immediately, I knew this would be part of my life’s work. These two threads – depth psychotherapy and wilderness rites of passage – have been the two interwoven threads that have led me down my particular path. 

I relish in the everyday humanness of our lives, both the glorious and the painful. I feel that therapists and all healers should be more transparent about their own doubts and struggles in order to help reduce the stigma around mental health challenges. Nobody has life figured out but to be witnessed and guided by another familiar with the dark path is the elixir of healing. 

In 2001, I had a significant dream that led me to Jungian Psychology. I didn’t fully understand the importance of dreams at the time, but this one stuck. Since then, I have been involved in Jungian analysis, continuously tracking my dreams. I am also an advanced candidate in training at the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado. 

Whether you’d like to meet for individual sessions or join me in an organized group, I invite you to reach out.

Areas of Specialty:

Often what brings someone to psychotherapy leads to unexpected areas asking for attention. Our symptoms and disturbances serve as guides to greater self awareness and growth. I work particularly with those who seek support for the following:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Climate Anxiety and Ecological Grief
  • Life Transitions
  • Illness, Death and Loss
  • Spiritual issues, including Religious Trauma
  • Childhood and Adult Trauma
  • Gender Issues
  • Sexuality
  • Burn Out and Self Care

Education and Experience:

  • Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, 1995 (#32191)
  • Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, 2013 (#766)
  • Credentialed School Counselor, 1992
  • Ph.D. in Depth Psychology, 2004
  • Master’s of Science in Counseling, 1991
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies, 1984
  • Wilderness Rites of Passage Guide, School of Lost Borders, 2002-Present
  • Analytic Training, Jung Institute of Colorado, 2016-Present
  • Private Practice in Grass Valley, 2017-Present
  • Adjunct Professor, Ecopsychology & Jungian Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005-Present
  • Professor of Counseling, California State University, Los Angeles, 2001-2012
  • School Counselor and School-Based Family Therapist, Long Beach Unified, 1997-2001

Where I live

I am grateful to live and work in two bioregions – the first is the Bear River watershed near Grass Valley, CA, the ancestral homeland of the Nisenan.

The second is Big Pine, CA, nestled beneath the Eastern Sierra of the Owens Valley, known as Payahuunadü in Paiute, the Land of the Flowing Water.

Sense of Place has always been important to me and the place where I was raised is inseparable from my perception of self – Catalina Island, or Pimu to the Tongva. In 1998 I was awarded a fellowship through the Orion Society called “Stories in the Land.” As a settler, I aim to walk gracefully on the lands I inhabit, and in a spirit of reciprocity with the people and ancestors who have called these places home long before me.

“We need new stories, new terms and conditions that are relevant to the love of land, a new narrative that would imagine another way, to learn the infinite mystery and movement at work in the world.”

— Linda Hogan