Our staff work together as a team, providing on-going consultation to one another so that clients profit from the experience, knowledge and expertise of the entire group. Administrative and training responsibilities are shared by co-owners, Dr. Jocelin Saks, Dr. Erika Swanson and Karen Erickson, LMFT.
Jocelin Saks, Ph.D. has been with Clearwater since its inception, and has been the Director of the Assessment program since 2006. Dr. Saks graduated with honors from Brown University and received her doctorate degree from Alliant University (formerly California School of Professional Psychology). She has extensive experience working with children and families, including pre- and post-doctoral positions at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, and work facilitating support groups for new mothers. She is trained in DBT (completing the five-day intensive) and is also fluent in Spanish. Dr. Saks supervises assessments at Clearwater, in addition to performing them herself. She works with children and adults as a therapist, using DBT and other modalities to inform treatment, and she works with children using our CAMMP skills on an individual basis as well. Dr. Saks has two teenaged children.
Karen Erickson, LMFT is a senior supervising therapist at Clearwater. Ms Erickson was intensively trained in DBT in 2008. Prior to that, she specialized in trauma therapy, non directive play therapy, and attachment issues. Ms. Erickson works with children, teens, and adults, and provides parent coaching, with a primary focus on the young adult population (she teaches the young adult DBT skills classes). She is also one of the architects of the new DBT-informed child program, CAMMP, helping 3rd to 5th graders develop the skills to manage anxiety, depression and mood volatility. More recently, Karen completed level I training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and is in the process of completing level II training. Ms. Erickson received her masters degree in clinical psychology from Saint Mary’s College in 2002 and has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2009.
Erika Swanson Ph.D. is a senior supervising therapist at Clearwater and Intake Director for the DBT clinic. She specializes in DBT for adolescents, adults, and parents. She has received intensive training in DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE), which treats PTSD in adults and adolescents. She is a lead instructor for adult and multi-family DBT skills classes. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in School Psychology from Teachers College. She completed her undergraduate degree in a joint program with Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music. Dr. Swanson brings a strong research background to her clinical work, with a particular focus on girls with ADHD and issues of self-concept and self-harming behaviors in that population. Her original research has been published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Dr. Swanson is the mother of a son and boy/girl twins.
Hilary Ferris White, LCSW is a licensed staff therapist at Clearwater. She specializes in adolescents, young adults, parenting work and is a lead DBT skills class instructor. She received her Masters in Social Work from Columbia University in New York where she was a member of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training Program. She maintains a strong affiliation with Columbia and has presented research on the DBT training program at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies conference. Ms. White is committed to delivering evidence based therapy. She has a special interest in using DBT for the treatment of eating disorders and trained for two years at Greenwich DBT, an outpatient eating disorder clinic in Connecticut. Ms. White graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor in Fine Arts and an emphasis in photography. She continues to nurture a keen love of the arts. Her Australian Shepherd, Juno, often joins her at work.
Catherine Shaddix, Psy.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY#29695) and comes to the Clearwater Clinic team after years of clinical work with children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of outpatient settings. Catherine received her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her doctoral degree from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. She spent her internship year at San Francisco General Hospital in the department of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychiatry, using mindfulness-based and attachment-focused modalities with children and families. She has extensive experience with early childhood interventions, mindfulness-based treatments for mood disorders, and evidence-based work with trauma. She has a special focus in her practice using DBT-adapted interventions for 8-11 year olds and their families. Catherine has been an intervention designer and facilitator for mindfulness and yoga programs for Baywell Psychiatry Group in San Francisco as well as the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. She is also a teacher of Buddhist meditation and Ashtanga yoga, and has been on the faculty of the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute since 2010 as a contemplative teacher.
Talia Kurland, Psy.D. provides assessment and therapy services at Clearwater. Dr. Kurland is a licensed clinical psychologist, and she works with children, adolescents, and families. Dr. Kurland received her undergraduate degree in Human Development from UC San Diego. She later moved to Chicago where she earned her M.A. in Counseling Psychology and her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Adler University (formerly the Adler School of Professional Psychology). Dr. Kurland completed her APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at The Guidance Center in Long Beach, California. She received additional post-doctoral training in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology during her fellowship at UC Davis Medical School Dept. of Psychiatry. While Dr. Kurland individualizes therapy based on her clients’ unique set of strengths and challenges, she integrates evidence-based techniques in the treatment of behavioral concerns, autism spectrum disorders, parent-child relational challenges, developmental trauma, depression, and anxiety. Dr. Kurland is the mother of a young son.
Caitlin Burnham, MSW is an Associate Clinical Social Worker and DBT therapist at Clearwater. She studied Psychology and Religion as an undergraduate at UC San Diego, and completed her Masters in Social Work at Columbia University. Caitlin also has a background in clinical research, and has co-authored book chapters on mindfulness in healthcare and education. She received intensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy as part of Columbia’s DBT Training Program and Lab. Caitlin did her clinical internship at NYU Child Study Center, practicing DBT and CBT with individuals and groups of young adults, adolescents, and their families. Caitlin has also been a Zen practitioner for over ten years, and spent four years in formal residential training holding various leadership positions at San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.