What's happening in 2017

This year 2017, I completed my EMDR certification training in February, this took about eighteen months. This summer in June I have been invited to attend the American Indian Psychologist Association annual gathering. I have been researching the area where this has been held for the last thirty years and talking to other therapists who have attended in the past. I am waffling with trepidation as I will travel to a remote area in the mountains of Utah, 7000 feet elevation. We will stay in tents and participate in mountain horseback riding and camp for a couple of days as part of the experience, before heading on back down to the University of Utah for the three day conference. I have updated here after the trip with a photo of myself and dear friend and colleague Darlene. We had a wonderful trip to Utah. The experience of meeting so many folks from around the country serving Native Americans was humbling. It was an honor to be a partticipant.

So looking back I have had other experiences similar tho the Utah trip related to my educational goals. I camped on the beach in Santa Barbara when I went to the University of Santa Barbara in August of 1976 for three weeks to complete my Montessori practicum. This was required for my certification. I had rented a small apartment however I decided to not stay there and chose instead to join a colleague and share camping space on the beach close to the university.

At that time I was a young mother and on a mission to teach my children all I could learn so they would enter school with a firm foundation. This new invitation will take me to Utah and is bringing up memories of my adventures of traveling to Santa Barbara the summer of 1976. I drove with my young children from Anacortes, Washington to Central California where my parents lived at the time. They had bought property and were living in a small town called Orosi. The property had five acres of orange trees, Valencia oranges. My father was working to establish his home building and construction business. My children stayed there on the "farm" as we all called it, with their grandparents, while I traveled on to Santa Barbara University to complete my three week practicum. As part of our travels we left Anacortes and headed to the tip of Washington to visit the Makah Indian reservation and attend the Baha'i Faith Spiritual Gathering held annually there. We then drove along the coast and headed to my folks place. Here is a web site for the Baha'i friends in Neah Bay. http://www.makahbahai.com/  I have since traveled to Neah Bay with my daughter and with my husband.

When I returned from California in the late summer of 1976,  I was hired to teach in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Head Start program. From that experience a long road of stories are still occurring today. I am just beginning to understand their purpose as I unwind and share the experiences from that point in my life to this. I continued my education and received my Masters Degree in Human Development with three specializations in child development and parent community work at Pacific Oaks College.

The painting is one I love very much and was used as the logo for my school, Children's House Child Development Center.  After completing my Montessori Certification, and working for Swinomish  Head Start program, I became ill mid year with pneumonia and did not complete the school year. I soon began caring for children in my home to be with my own young children. After several years I created the school and owned and operated the program for more than fifteen years. During that time I was asked to help develop the Samish Longhouse Preschool Program and worked for the Samish Nation from 1990 through 1996.
Swedish Artist, Elsa Beskow 1874-1953