Welcome to A Balanced Point of View

To begin, let me tell you the sole reason I chose to become a psychotherapist in the first place.

You see, I never really understood how to be in the world.  From a young age, I constantly felt confused and uncertain, I was shy and scared most of the time. As I got older, I was accomplished and successful on the outside, but the truth is, I was suffering and struggling internally.  Life had become drab and I was slowly losing my desire to engage in the world.  As a young executive, I found myself attempting to navigate the corporate world and I didn’t understand the rules.  Fortunately, help came in the form of an LCSW and she ultimately helped me learn to reparent myself. She taught me to trust, feel and eventually heal from all that made me feel small.  Rather than continuing to pursue my interest in medicine, law or administration, I ultimately pivoted to explore the thing I was born to do; I became a social worker and I love it.   Honestly, i think I was born a social worker, because people have been telling me their secrets and trusting me with their pain throughout my entire life.

My professional bio is below for those who want to know a more about my experience and qualifications. 

I was born in Caribou, Maine and was raised in Northern California from the age of 3. Throughout my life, I have traveled back and forth between Northern California and Southern Arizona.  In college, I settled on an undergraduate degree of bio-anthropology and criminal justice at the University of Arizona.   I was also privileged to  work in the cardiology department at the (then) University Medical Center in Tucson. After receiving my Bachelor of Science degree, I worked in the biomedical device industry helping to market and train cardiac surgical teams on the CardioWest Total Artificial Heart.  I operated in this capacity for several years before returning to academia to further my education.  In 2012, I completed my Masters in Social Work degree from Arizona State University and thus began my career working in treatment environments.

For the past 14 years, I have worked in various  behavioral health settings within the public and private sectors. These included outpatient, intensive outpatient, residential and in-patient care. In 2018, at Sierra Tucson, I helped develop, facilitate and performed the role of Program Manager for the Licensed Professionals Program, which I loved. However, despite a deep love for the Catalina Mountain and the Sonoran desert, I missed the ocean and the trees of Northern CA more. So, in 2021, I relocated back to the Bay Area, as the Director of Clinical Services for Bayside Marin. Ultimately, I returned to direct practice as a Primary Therapist at Alta Mira Recovery in Sausalito, CA in 2022 and have continued to reside in the North Bay ever since. 

Throughout this time, I have predominantly enjoyed supporting individuals and their families navigate early sobriety and emotional recovery. In particular, I have had the privilege to support countless individuals and licensed professionals learn to navigate their mental health needs, which is both near and dear to my heart.  Assisting individuals to provide optimal care to their patients, or clients, in their respective practices, has been both a rich and rewarding experience that I continue to enhance in my private practice. 

With love and compassion, my primary therapeutic practice focuses on the use of trauma informed care with reference to internal family systems (IFS), developmental model of healing, and psychodramatic or experiential approaches to understand how and why one behaves and feels the way they do.  I use humor and humility as a means of normalizing experiences to help people shift from “being a human doing to becoming a human being.” I believe in the power of narrative story and thus when appropriate, I will share both my personal and professional experiences to help you foster the change and growth you desire in your life.  We will connect and collaborate together in our humanity throughout the entire therapeutic process. 

When I am not operating in a professional capacity, I spend my free time in Marin County practicing my culinary skills, gardening, hiking, raising my small human, and hopefully…  taking a nap ; )

- With gratitude, Jenny