I'm a second-generation Ilokano immigrant, born and raised in Tiipai/southern Kumeyaay territory (south San Diego, CA). My family is originally from the Ilocandia region on the island of Luzon, the Philippines. I earned my Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and my Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan. I have been serving California’s American Indian/Alaska Native communities through behavioral health programming as a clinical social worker since 2009. I try to incorporate transformative justice and anti-oppression theory into my practice as a trainer, supervisor and clinician. Outside of work, I enjoy Mother Nature, crafting, martial arts, improvisational comedy, random trivia, and baking copious amounts of pastries.

My name is Cindy Poot-Castellon (she/her/hers), I am Chicanx and a direct descendant of the indigenous Maya inhabitants of the Yucatán peninsula.I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I am passionate about decolonizing social work and mental health care, and connecting liberation work with spiritual healing among LGBTQ+ communities of color. Some of my experiences include: supporting LGBTQ+ youth, low-income families, teen moms, foster youth, and unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in navigating harsh oppressive systems. These experiences have fueled my interests in pursuing a career in creating change from a micro to macro level. In 2015, I graduated from Cal State, Long Beach with a degree in Sociology, and I am currently finishing my MSW from USC.I am a social worker with an artist’s heart who enjoys using their hands and mind to create new things. I’m also a Dodgers fan and a furr-parent to a deaf rescue named Chase Norman Muttley and a 13-year old chihuahua mix named Lolita. During my free time, I enjoy spending time with my wife and dogs, hiking, watching movies, and catching shows.

I am from golden fields of wheat, rural humid breezes, Naismith’s hoops, and a Civil Rights hub of promise. I finished the journey to California that began before my birth. My ancestors moved through and between Louisiana, Tennessee, Kansas, and Missouri - with a stolen genesis. They provided me with my endowment of fortitude, faith, hardiness, and insight. I arrived at the Gender Health Center because I believe that everyone in our community deserves to be seen, held, respected, appreciated, celebrated and healed. Unfortunately, due to societal stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and the willful ignorance of providers, compassionate and effective services are often not readily available for queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, and gender creative people. My work as a psychologist, educator, and clinical supervisor seeks to change this reality. Since 2014, I have supervised interns at the GHC. I approach supervision from an integrative developmental lens and an emancipatory communitarian orientation. The rhythms of my little love Pocket the dog keep me honest and allows me to practice kindness and patience. I thank her every day for that opportunity. When I was a kid, I hummed (like a little motor) as I played soccer and basketball. You may find me humming along on my outdoor runs - a habit that I would never relinquish.

I’ve been providing therapeutic services since 2005. I utilize a strength-based approach not just in my role as a clinician, but also in my role as a clinical supervisor. I encourage trainees and interns I work with to begin developing their own therapeutic style, incorporating skills they’ve learned in school with their own creative personality which forms a unique approach when supporting community members. On my free time I love rock climbing, live hula, and paint little rocks with messages of hope and joy that I like to leave all around Sacramento for people to find so they can smile.

Practicing in the Sacramento Area as a therapist since 2002, I draw heavily from relational and mindfulness-based approaches as a clinician and clinical supervisor. I have a passion for supporting people in leading authentic lives, especially around their gender and sexuality; this common mission is what drew me to the Gender Health Center in 2016 as a clinical supervisor. In my free time, I’m probably hanging out with my child or cats, gardening, or searching for new chia pets or unique art work at a thrift store.

Like all of us, I have many roles and identities. To list a few, I am a grand-daughter of immigrants from the Azores and Mexico, a daughter of parents who lived traditional gender roles, I am an older sister of a brother who is also a friend, and I am a dog mom. I was raised with Mexican cultural influences that led me to legally change my last name to reflect my bi-cultural identity. When I was in high school, I had teachers and school advisors tell me I was not college material which fueled me to earn my Master's of Science in Marriage Family Child Counseling in 1997. In 2005, I became a Clinical Supervisor and have enjoyed mentoring others in the counseling profession. Between 2012-2014, I worked at Gender Health Center as a Clinical Supervisor and I'm happy to be back. Currently, I teach at Sac State in the Counselor Ed master's program and I'm the Client Support Counselor at UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital where I support stressed and/or grieving animal owners and pet parents.

Katya (she/they) has been volunteering at GHC since 2017 and, being nonbinary, considers GHC more than just a place to work but rather a planet they call HOME. Back in 2007 they peer-facilitated UGU -- United Genders of the Universe! -- groups at the Pacific Center in Berkeley. They found community and comradery where before they knew only loneliness and heartache. They are a hopelessly creative Aquarius. They have self-published several BOOKS of fiction with themes of friendship, alienation, addiction, recovery, and identity formation. They love reading, writing, mindfulness, running, and hiking. They also lead a Regional Support Team of case workers at another local non-profit. Narrative Therapy has been a super sweet style to inform their own unique way of showing up for community and community members.

As a fat, queer, neurodivergent disruptor of societal norms and systems, I hold a strength-based framework that values and celebrates all genders, sexualities, bodies, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, family structures, religions, and socio-economic locations. I see these intersectionalities as a beautiful tapestry of personal empowerments which can become the foundation from which we work collectively to identify, address and dismantle systems of oppression. I believe humans shouldn’t be pathologized in a society designed to keep people sick and stuck. I am deeply committed to doing the work of personal, collective and ancestral healing by empowering others to claim the fullness of themselves and supporting them while they face the ways they’ve been disempowered through oppression, marginalization, and trauma. I believe that by sharing our personal truths, we create space for other humans to be able to do the same. I fantasize that the more people are empowered to share and live their truths, the less power these systems of oppression will have. I got my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from University of California, Davis in 2019. I am a second year Integral Counselling Psychology Master’s student at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my children and our new puppy, laughing with friends, gardening and dabbling in wildlife photography.

I began my rebirth through photography 9 years ago. I love life, nature, people, and photographs. Photographs can force us to see the love, light, and reality of things. Photography has been my healing and biggest motivator to rebuild my life with my son. It has been our blessing. And both my son and I use it to bless others. I coordinated on and off-campus diverse community events for students at the photography department, and the Russ Solomon Gallery. I facilitated a workshop for colleagues, fellow classified professionals, on how to capture photography via a cellphone with a section on creating Covid Comfort Capture photos. As a Student Personnel Assistant, I organized guest speakers’ events and coordinated volunteers’ assignments. As A facilitator or speaker, I have led several events related to using visual arts like photography or other media to empower individuals that were students and/or trauma survivors. I have a B.S. in Strategic Management and A.A. in Photography. Currently, I am enrolled in the CSU Stanislaus State University MSW program. My goal is to become a licensed clinical social worker to facilitate workshops within the community to teach trauma survivors how to heal through photography.
 

I was influenced by LIFE Photographer Gordon Parks to explore photojournalism. I loved how he took very thought-provoking situations and made them beautiful in his images. quote from Mr. Parks is;

"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera."

Greetings, my name is Osayama Omoruyi. I major in Social Work at California State University, Sacramento; I will receive my bachelor’s degree at the end of Summer 2021. I look forward to continuing my education in Social Work via graduate school. Furthermore, I am a creative social work student with experiences in community service, advocating for clients, and coordinating events. My strengths include motivating others, active listening, adaptability to change, and integrity. I love to bring unique ideas and growth to an organization while building positive relationships and collaborating productively with my coworkers. Also, I am passionate about helping others by planting seeds and knowing those seeds will grow one day. Lastly, I love learning and celebrating the different diverse cultures and communities in society today because it allows us to come together as one.