Welcome Kristin!

We’re so excited to welcome Frank Peña to the Gather & Grow Family!

Kristin is an Arizona State University alumn and writes:

I am so glad you are here. My name is Kristin (She/Her). I am grateful to be a part of the Gather and Grow OC team. I am an Associate Clinical Social Worker (ACSW) with a passion for connection, mindfulness, and boundaries. I definitely say, “What can we add in?” and “We’re doing it!” on the regular. I will always be game to hear about your favorite music and what you are currently listening to. 

I have been that person who has known deep-to-the-core struggles with grief and loss. This has also looked like wading through loss of identity, sports injuries, and navigating chronic illness in my family system. With this, I have been on the other side of the metaphorical couch when someone doesn’t know how to hold that space for me without their own discomfort taking center stage. That is the space I hope to hold for you!

I believe that our stories hold power, and my job is to cultivate a safe space for you to move through your story. One of the absolutely best parts of my job is being invited in to join you where you are at in your story and champion your journey. Being known and given the freedom to be comfortable with who you are and given the support to look deeply into yourself is why I started this work many years ago.

I have weaved and maneuvered through various helping professional realms to get here. This includes work as a behavior specialist in co-occurring substance use programming and working in several levels of community mental health care, from intensive outpatient, community-based services, crisis stabilization, prevention/outreach, and outpatient care.  Much of my work is framed within cognitive-behavioral and strengths-based perspectives and how we can look to the strengths you hold to be true about your life to ground our work together. 

In each encounter, I seek to bring my authentic self to meet you where you are. Sometimes, this comes out in my quirky sense of humor, movie quotes, or relating a current meme or TikTok trend to a skill we are working on together. I like to think of it as ‘marching to the beat of my own drum,’ and I look forward to having you join in with me—there are always extra drumsticks lying around over here! 

Take good care,

Kristin

We’re so excited to have Kristin on the team! Read more about her practice HERE.