Valerie has 25 years of professional experience in child welfare services, juvenile and adult corrections, probation and women’s recovery services. She has expertise as an adoption and foster care social work specialist, a talented clinical trainer, and a therapist in the adoption and permanency specialty children’s mental health clinic at Kinship Center. She also has worked internationally as a social worker in the foster care system in England.

In addition to her work with Myriad, Valerie provides mental health services in a prison population for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and maintains a faith-based private practice working with children, adults and families. Valerie, who is passionate about the role of cultural competence in the provision of mental health services, has expertise in Accelerated Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP).