In my 40-year career as a child, marriage, and family therapist in California, I worked with thousands of people, ages 3 to 85, from every walk of life.
In 2018, at 62, I packed up the dog and cat and moved to Italy, where I bought a small olive farm.
Now I provide online coaching to individuals, parents, teens, and families who are working through issues related to moving to a new country, such as feeling isolated, adjusting to a new culture, making new friends while missing the old ones, and managing a new school or job.
Moving to a new country doesn’t stop all the other life and relationship challenges, either. There may still be self-doubt and the need to develop healthy self-esteem, parent-child conflicts, relationship struggles, communication problems, and more.
As a coach, my goal is to teach practical tools, offer support and understanding specific to your issues, and provide a safe place to talk through your challenges and explore effective ways to navigate them.
I was born and raised in Northern California. School was a struggle because of my dyslexia and ADHD, but I managed. Back then, they didn’t know much about either, and I wasn’t diagnosed until I was nineteen. My teachers and parents knew something was off, but they all had faith in me and believed, “Kathy will find her way.”
My work with people started long before that. While I was in high school, I volunteered in a class with children with Down syndrome and for the elderly in a care facility.
College was not on my list. I tried different jobs and eventually found myself working at a daycare center. I loved working with the children, but the company required that I complete 12 units of child development. So I thought, “I can do one semester,” and enrolled at Sacramento City Junior College, where I fell in love with school.
I graduated on the Dean’s List with a 4.0 GPA and an AA degree in Early Childhood Education. Still in love with college, I moved on to Chico State University, where I discovered the field of psychology and earned my BA. I followed that with a master’s degree in psychology from Sonoma State University. My areas of emphasis were physiological psychology, communication skills, and counseling.
In 2000, I founded a counseling agency in rural Northern California and ran it as manager, clinical director, and therapist for 17 years. We treated people with anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, ADHD, and learning disabilities, trauma and PTSD, and profound grief.
We built parent-training programs for blended, foster, and adoptive families. I wrote grants and was awarded more than one million dollars over those 17 years to treat child victims of crime and abuse. I was also deemed a specialist in Family Court and Criminal Court. I consulted with social workers, probation officers, judges, and treatment programs.
In my 40-year career, I worked with thousands of people, ages 3 to 85, from every walk of life, including, among others, bikers from rough motorcycle gangs, the California Highway Patrol, and sheriff’s deputies. I am proud to say that those clients referred their associates and friends to me.
