Karen learned Spanish in school and living abroad in Spain and Latin America, and is still learning more nuance after 45 years of practice. She found upon launch to Practicum that this would define her clinical career because of the tsunami of unmet need for language-concordant services, so she developed Bilingual Certification in Spanish for Counseling department students.

Among her greatest blessings is to be embedded in a network of Latinx colleagues, clients, and students who have been raised in communalism and are driven by love for the greater good. The generosity of clients, students, and loving colleagues keeps her wanting to grow and be useful to more people. She finds that practitioners called to global mental health outreach embody a selflessness to which she aspires, and she will never have words to adequately describe her appreciation for the communities that trust such workers with the rawness of their pain.

Her clients have proven to her the universal necessity of secure attachment to cope with injustice and trauma, so she studies everything possible to facilitate that security wherever possible.

• Doctor of Philosophy, Clinical Psychology, Specialization in Somatic Psychology, Santa Barbara
• Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA (Sep 2005-July 2012)
• Master of Arts, Counseling Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, Campbell, CA (Sep 1996-May 1998)
• Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA (Sep 1990-May 1994)
• Bachelor of Arts, Spanish Literature, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA (Sep 1990-May 1994)
• Semester in Spain, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain. (Sep-Dec 1993)