I began my professional career as a classroom teacher in 1967. As a first year teacher, I was one of five teachers selected by the Oklahoma City Board of Education to begin the desegregation of the inner city schools. The district had decided to integrate faculty before integrating students. I was excited and challenged to be a small part of this fundamental change in education, as well as American culture. My experience allowed me to grow as a teacher and as a person. I learned that I wanted to know and do more in my work with students. So, I entered the University of Oklahoma to do graduate work. I had learned about humanistic education from the librarian at the middle school where I as a new teacher. I will always be grateful to Lillian Jones, school librarian for bringing me a book one afternoon. As she handed it to me she said, “You were the only person I thought about when this came across my desk. This book was written for you.” It was, Values and Teaching by Raths, Harmin and Simon. My world turned upside down.

At that time there were only two programs in humanistic education in the US, one at the University of Amherst in Massachusetts and the other at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I remember looking at a map of the United States. I was in the center (Oklahoma City) between these two programs that offered what I wanted in education. I was certain I could never make either. Undeterred, I did my graduate work at University of Oklahoma where my professors understood my desire to integrate cognitive and affective learning. They allowed me to do special projects and to attend workshops and other training programs to approximate what I might have learned at these other universities. I became a teaching assistant and learned even more. I went on to teach as a classroom teacher for five more years. I was excited to begin to apply all that I had learned about involving the whole child in the process of learning. Then I went through a major change in the direction of my life.

After a divorce I decided that it was time to explore the options I had previously felt I could not take. I moved away from Oklahoma and became a member of the staff at Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California. I spent a couple of months at Esalen as a work scholar and had met the director of the children’s school. She invited me to come and be on staff at the school. Little did I know that I would be the student!

The school at Esalen was called, Gazebo. It was primarily a preschool. So, my “students” were infants and young children through five years of age. While at Esalen and the Gazebo I learned to love childhood. I learned that education is not about learning to read and write alone. It is about contact, growing, and expanding as a person in the world. I learned more from those very young children than from all my college professors combined. I had a rare opportunity to rediscover myself in the beauty of Big Sur, in the sweetest company of young children.

After being at Esalen for a year, I decided to fulfill my desire to study humanistic education. I was now on the west coast and Santa Barbara was no longer half a continent away. It was just down the road. I applied to the doctorate program in Confluent Education and the University of California SB, and was accepted. While studying I maintained my residency in Big Sur and divided my time between Santa Barbara and Esalen.

During this time, I joined with a fellow student and started a preschool in Santa Barbara modeled after the Esalen Gazebo. It was all out of doors. The children (preschoolers) and I built gardens, chairs, desks, rabbit hutches, all the needs for the school. A tree held backpacks and jackets. We collected our lunch from a small garden planted with the children. I also went to work for a local mental health clinic and learned about a master’s level license in child psychotherapy. Reluctantly, I left education and transferred into counseling psychology and early childhood education. In my transition I realized that the advice my former school principal and school librarian had given me was true. They had heeded me to work with individual children, especially those who needed special attention.

As a teacher I had chaired a committee that developed programs for Gifted and Talented children. The program was used statewide as a model for other school districts. I found that many children, who were having difficulties in school, were actually gifted and needed to find a way to express those gifts within a system that wanted them to conform to the demands of a rather unimaginative curriculum. I found troubled, frustrated kids to be fascinating. Their perspective was rich and usually right on the mark. So, I decided to change my life again, and become a marriage, family therapist.

I met Violet Oaklander shortly after leaving Esalen Institute. Her book, Windows to Our Children was a great inspiration. This book, which is now published in 13 different languages including Chinese, has been recognized as a classic in the field of child psychotherapy. I attended trainings with her and spent one year as her apprentice. In the last twenty years as a therapist, her work was been my primary source of clinical thinking. For the past 18 years I have traveled across the US and to several European countries teaching gestalt psychotherapy with children to other therapists who want to know more about the Oaklander model. I am adjunct faculty member at graduate institutes in Santa Barbara.

I began my private practice in Santa Barbara in 1987 after working for four years at a local non-profit as a staff counselor with abused children. In addition to working a full private practice and teaching, I had many adventures sailing the Santa Barbara Channel and making a 30 day sail across the Pacific Ocean as part of a crew of three. After almost twenty years of living and working in Santa Barbara, I decided it was time to make a full commitment and buy a home. After looking at homes in Santa Barbara and surrounding areas I found a beautiful spot in the Santa Ynez Valley.

After a few months of living in Solvang (Danish for “Sunny Fields”), I realized that once again, I was going to make another life changing choice. I started out as an Oklahoma girl. I lived with heat and winds in summer, as well as the cold in winter, where the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye. In the Santa Ynez valley I found many similarities to my Oklahoma roots. Cattle, horses and wide open spaces in a friendly rural area. But instead of corn fields, I saw vineyards as expansive as the Pacific. I felt comfortable, eerily at home almost immediately. In fact, I fell in love with the Valley. I am going to stay. After a few years of commuting between Santa Barbara and Solvang, I found an office that just fit with my practice with children. It is never easy to relocate a professional practice; however, I was warmly received and supported my many new friends and professional colleagues. Shortly I had a private practice and started a supervision group of local professionals who were interested in becoming certified play therapists. This year (2008) I expanded my national and international teaching, training, and supervision by developing the West Coast Institute for Gestalt Play Therapy and beginning an on-going training program. I know that people will come to the Valley from all across this country as well as from other countries to continue their studies in child psychotherapy. Solvang and the SYV offer beauty, interesting places, and exciting things to do, such as gliding, hiking, horseback riding, ableskivers, and wine tasting. Its diversity appeals to everyone.

Other passions in my life are gardening, three lovely felines, small dinner parties, attending art exhibits, theatre, and being with my family (which is expanding with the next generation) and friends. In my sixth decade, I am discovering the joys of taking care of myself and enjoying my home and the small pleasures of day to day life-- things like a good night’s sleep after a full day.

I am also setting aside time to write the book inside of me about the child’s journey in Gestalt psychotherapy. This book is based on the Italian classic, Pinocchio. I am very grateful for all those who have and continue to encourage me to get this book written. Also, this year two articles are in the mill to be published in Germany and a Latin American journal. My chapter, “Gestalt Play Therapy”, will be included in the revised edition of Play Therapy Theory and Practice: A Comparative Presentation, Ed. By Kevin J. O’Conner and Lisa Mages Braverman.

Life is never a dull moment. We only need to stay aware in each.