All of you is welcome here.
Welcome, my name is Kristen (she/her), and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. LMFT # 153166
I bring a wealth of lived and professional wisdom and experience to my marriage and family therapy practice.
I have lived, worked and raised my family in the Santa Cruz Mountains since 1991 years. This is my home. I feel so grateful to be a part of this exceptional community of hearty, kind souls.
Being a psychotherapist is a natural progression of a life of service to this .
I became a credentialed teacher in 1997 and opened one of the first nature based charter schools in California for K-5 grade right on the edge of Fall Creek State Park, called Fall Creek School. Beginning in 2012, I started to teach junior high and high school: Environmental science, Biology and English Language Arts. Out of demand from my clients, I was called into becoming a private parenting consultant at about the same time and for many years I sat in living rooms, listening and learning.
For 22 years, it was my absolute delight to offer weeklong, watershed ecology based summer camps to the children of our valley through my programs “Walk Through the Watershed” and “Riverwalkers”.
Additionally, I served the of young people of our community aged 12 to 20 as a mentor through my non profit organization “The Artemis Project” offering camps, after school programs and 1:1 coaching.
Along the way, I also studied and taught permaculture design and gardening both in partnerships with local schools and privately working with UCSC Farm and Garden, Happy Valley and San Lorenzo Valley Schools. I had a lot of fun designing gardens and water catchment for dozens of private properties as well.
In my free time now you will find me in my garden, out and about with my dogs, or on a hike in one of our beautiful state parks. My pleasures are few but potent: activism, reading, drawing, and enjoying my neighbors, friends and family.
I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow and challenge myself in meaningful ways every day as a therapist.
Thank you for your time!
“Why should I not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside, looking out into the shining world?”
Mary Oliver