Personalized Healing and Resilience Services with Licensed Psychotherapist

I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, musician, speaker, and collector of stories.

In case we haven’t run into each other on a windswept San Francisco Beach or gnoshing at Oakland’s Mac + Cheese shop Homeroom, my name is Kimberly, but you’re welcome to call me KJ.

I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (which means, I study and counsel on relationships), a musician, a speaker, and a collector of stories. I also am a Psychological First Aid Responder with extensive experience providing mental health support to families impacted by disasters, both natural and man-made.

Growing up, I was always aware that my unique background drew unwanted attention to me which caused me to feel self conscious, adrift and without a tribe to which I fully belonged. I am a biracial, female, transracial adoptee raised by a single mother in a fairly homogenous city- which is a fancy way of saying I didn’t look like anyone else in my neighborhood including my own family.

I became attuned to others who also felt like they were outsiders, unwelcome because of differences or challenges. I led a life where I downplayed my appearance, muted my voice, and hid my ideas from my teachers and peers. Sometimes I would avoid social gatherings. I stayed small, which caused bouts of depression and anxiety as well as self-shaming, especially in my later high school years.

Solace and sanctuary showed up in the form of creative practices such as playing piano, creating song lyrics and poetry, authoring short stories, and art journaling. I also discovered the power of active listening and the bond that grew in having honest and curiosity-led conversations with other people.

As I began sharing the lessons I learned with other people who suffered feelings of self-shame, I created methods for shifting embarrassment about differences into celebrations of strength. The discovery of resilience is rooted in deep compassion, which comes from active listening to the stories we have internalized and applied to ourselves and others. As the people I worked with began noticing results, their friends and family members began to request my advice on accessing their own inner resources.

“The more openly one shares their personal experience, the shame transforms into a deep compassion for self and others. Suffering lessens, and the pain of isolation softens into curiosity, wonder and strength.”

Over the past couple of years during the world health crisis, I began to feel a deeper calling – to help those in the health service and education industries who focus all their energy on healing others. I teach these healers how to replenish their inner resilience stories so that they can continue healing their communities on the front lines.

Specialties

Trauma and PTSD

Grief and Loss

Creativity Recovery

Racial and Cultural Identity

Professional Qualifications

  • EMDRIA- Trained EMDR Therapist

    Institute For Creative Mindfulness

    EMDR International Association

  • Certified Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapist

    The Embody Lab

  • Mental Health Quality Improvement and Compliance Coordinator

    Contra Costa County Behavioral Health Quality Improvement + Assurance Unit 

  • Licensed Clinical Supervisor 

    Bliss Begins Within Psychotherapy Private Practice

  • Supervising Mental Health Program Manager

    Turning Point of Central California, North County Mobile Unit

  • Licensed Patient Care Advocate

    Pacific Care Behavioral Health

✔️ Masters of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy

✔️ Bachelors of Science in Health and Human Services, Counseling Psychology

✔️ Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2007

✔️ Certified Disaster Mental Health Responder

✔️ Red Cross-Approved Instructor of these Courses:

  • Foundations of Mental Health

  • Psychological First Aid

Professional Experiences

  • There are almost no words to explain how this experience, my creativity retreat, not only changed my artistic and organizational outlook but gave me some internal guidance and navigation that are continuing to reap benefits. II Continue to be inspired after our work together. KJ you are an exceptional guide!!!

    Ryan K, Creativity Retreat Client

  • KJ has helped me immensely with getting myself out of my bubble. We began working together with the goals of managing my chronic anxiety and depression. She helped me get back on my feet after losing my job, and in fact, she supported me in finding a new career I love! Her energy is very calm and soothing, and she is very attentive and listens to every detail…

    Mary, Coaching Client

  • KJ created a safe space for me to talk about a very dark time in my life. In her quiet and attentive way she listened and held space for me. Her words when I was done were warm and supportive and reflected back to me in a way I could heal myself with her guidance. KJ is open and loving and willing to share her own vulnerability…

    Fiona, Coaching Client

  • Recently, my doctor prescribed a lifestyle change in which self-care and compassion are staples. Thank you for creating such a beautiful space with your calming guidance and soothing music. I cried so many tears in release!

    Morrey N, Creativity Workshop Client

Stories of Astonishing Light

Join conversations about mental health, resilience and radical compassion. KJ is on a mission of guidance – with an open invitation for women, people of color, and adoptees – towards embracing a creative, artful, storied life. Weekly Wednesday episodes will feature recorded interviews and experiential jam sessions in collaboration with musicians, visionaries and healers. KJ also will host solo-casts helping you reveal and express your unique voice, your story of astonishing light.

Contact KJ

Email

MusesForKJ@gmail.com