All of you is welcome here.
Welcome, my name is Kristen (she/her), and I am a Registered Associate of Marriage and Family Therapy.
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 for over 30 years and 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.
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 and became a private parenting consultant.
I designed and offered weeklong, watershed ecology based summer camps to the children of our valley for over 25 years 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.
In my free time 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 painting, writing and traveling.
I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow and challenge myself in meaningful ways now as a therapist. Thank you for reading!
“Why should I not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside, looking out into the shining world?”
Mary Oliver