Clearwater is a diagnostic and treatment center where the staff values empathy, respect for diversity, teamwork, and rigorous thinking. Because we are a cohesive community, our staff turnover is unusually low. We are proud that each and every clinician at Clearwater is well trained, and committed to providing flexible, responsive, high quality care to everyone who walks through our doors.

Clearwater is owned and administered by Dr. Sharon Witkin, Dr. Demi Rhine, and Dr. Jocelin Saks.

Sharon Witkin, Ph.D. is a co-founder and current Executive and Clinical Director at Clearwater. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she oversees program development, provides supervision, and teaches assessment. She has been working in a general practice with children, adolescents, and adults for over 28 years, with specializations in learning disabilities and psychological assessment, attachment theory, child abuse and neglect, and most recently DBT. Dr Witkin trained and later was on staff at Children's Hospital at Stanford, where she was one of the last students to be taught by the late Dr. Bruno Bettleheim. In 1989, she left California and practiced for ten years in Pennsylvania, where she worked in a pediatric setting, and served as an expert witness in juvenile court for child protective services. In 1999, she returned to the Bay Area, providing services in a variety of settings including Children's Hospital in Oakland (where she established an assessment program), La Cheim Children and Family Services (where she was Clinical Director), and her current small private practice in Oakland. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology.

Demi Rhine, PsyD. is the Director of Clearwater’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) clinic. Dr. Rhine began her training in DBT during her pre-doctoral internship at Marin County Community Mental Health. She has since completed the following DBT training through Behavioral Tech:

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Training Course

• Five Day Foundational DBT Training Course

• DBT with Multi-Problem Adolescents

In addition to DBT therapy, Dr. Rhine is fluent in Spanish and provides psychological assessment and general psychotherapy services, with specializations in trauma, adolescents and parenting. Dr. Rhine graduated from Brown University and completed her doctoral training at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA.

Jocelin Saks, Ph.D. is the Director for our Assessment programs. She is fluent in Spanish, and in addition to running our Assessment program, she conducts intake interviews for therapy clients, supervises trainees, and provides direct assessment and psychotherapy services. Dr. Saks graduated from Brown University and California School of Professional Psychology (now Alliant University). She completed her post-doctoral training at Children's Hospital in Oakland. Dr. Saks has specializations in parent education and support, trauma, and psychological testing.

Our senior staff include:

Zoe Collins, Ph.D., has a private practice providing psychological assessment and consultation in San Francisco. She is currently a core Wechsler member and the Associate Director of Training at Argosy University (SF Bay Area Campus). Prior to joining Argosy she was a Wechsler member for UCSF/Child and Adolescent Sexual Abuse Resource Center in the department of Psychiatry, San Francisco General Hospital Campus.

At UCSF she was awarded the honor of “Champion of Diversity” in 2008.. She is primarily interested in working with children who have experienced trauma, working with African American families in behavioral health care, as well as providing psychological testing and evaluation. Dr. Collins has provided a number of talks regionally and nationally on trauma, assessment and working with African American youth and families.

Sally Francis, Ph.D. is one of the original co-founders of Clearwater. Prior to obtaining her doctorate from the Wright Institute, she was a founding mother of Birthways, a community-based support and education center for expectant and new parents. Before her association with Clearwater, she was Training Director of La Cheim Children and Family Services' CAPIC approved internship program. She is an experienced clinician in the areas of trauma and resilience, as well as in lifespan transitions, such as adolescence, family formation and coping with aging and loss. She was the Training Director of La Cheim's CAPIC approved internship. Dr. Francis provides both individual and group supervision at Clearwater, and she maintains a private practice in Oakland.

Diane Santas, Ph.D. provides clinical supervision and consultation at Clearwater. She received her doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology (now Alliant University). She trained at Children's Hospital, San Francisco and completed post-doctoral training at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland and at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies. She has been in full-time private practice in Oakland for over 20 years, doing psychotherapy and psychological testing with adults, adolescents, and children, with special interests in trauma, parenting, learning disabilities, and assessment. She is an an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology.

345 38th Street, Oakland, CA 94609
510.596.8137
510.596.8955 (Fax)