Kara Starkey's Resumé

Kara Marie Starkey
Marriage & Family Therapist License #45806
1588 Homestead Road, Santa Clara, CA 95050
Office Phone (408) 850-1484
therapy@karastarkeymft.com

Creative, Compassionate Psychotherapist in Private Practice
Experienced in Conducting Therapy with Children, Adolescents, Adults, Couples, Families, and Groups

Marriage & Family Therapist Intern, 11/05 to 2/07, Private Practice of Cheryl Zatkin-Steres, MFT, San Jose, CA

Psychotherapy in a private practice setting with children, teens, and adults experiencing a wide range emotional and relational difficulties, such as parenting issues, stress, separation/divorce and other life crisis situations. Also performed in-depth psychological assessments for patients considering bariatric (weight loss) surgery.

Work experience included individual, couple, and family therapy, and children's programs (inlcuding play therapy, trauma groups, and socialization groups). Participation in domestic violence intervention programs for teens, as well as parenting classes and groups, including high conflict parenting groups and treatment for families and children of divorce. Ongoing supervised training and direct practical experience provding psychotherapy for a wide range of ethnically, economically, and socially diverse clientele within in a non-profit agency setting.

Counseling at-risk students in East San Jose elementary schools. Children treated may have attendance problems, simple phobias, pervasive unhappiness, parents who are or have divorced, grief or separation issues, disruptive classroom behavior, communication problems, suicidal tendencies, aggressive behavior, peer conflicts, experienced physical/sexual abuse, oppositional tendencies, ADD or ADHD, poor self-esteem, problems adjusting to life transitions, withdrawal tendencies, and bizarre behaviors. A combination of play therapy, art therapy, and talk therapy was utilized, as appropriate per the child's developmental level.

Counseling Volunteer, 1/04 to 4/04, Surya Sati Joncas-Carrell, PhD (Private Practice), Sunnyvale, CA

Fieldwork/volunteer experience consisting of working one 50-minute session per week, along with co-therapist and my therapy-dog-in-training. Ongoing work involved a teenage female dog-phobic client, and primarily utilized cognitive behavioral therapy (such as successive approximations, modeling, and systematic desensitization).

Therapeutic counseling for middle school students, including play and art therapy. Counseling comprised of individual therapy, family therapy, and supervised clinical training. Ongoing experience and training received in regards to diagnosis, assessment, prognosis, and treatment of mental disorders. Use of age-appropriate psychotherapeutic techniques to help improve, restore, or maintain healthy functioning of adolescents in a multi-cultural school setting. Exposure and ongoing experience with contemporary issues such as domestic violence, drug use, gang activity, eating disorders, CPS reporting, runaways, and suicidality.

Volunteer at a non-profit organization dedicated to providing therapeutic horseback riding lessons (equestrian therapy) for individuals with special needs. Experience included hands-on grooming, maintenance, exercise, and training of the horses, as well as personal therapeutic interactions with both children and adults. Worked with students with physical, mental, emotional, and/or developmental disabilities to help develop physical strength, balance, control, self-confidence, and self-esteem.

Began as a volunteer dog socializer, training, exercising, socializing, and recording behavioral descriptions of adoptable dogs at the animal shelter. Advanced to position as web photographer, and currently help socialize, train, digitally photograph, and write behavioral descriptions and bios of adoptable dogs. Also adjust, optimize, and publish digital photos taken, and create and publish web pages for the Humane Society’s web site.

Production Team Supervisor, 3/01 to 8/01, Aptas, Inc. (formerly Nextron Communications), San Jose, CA

Increased the growth and quality of web site production department though rigorous interviewing, hiring, placement and training processes and managed a team of up to 20 direct reports. Helped implement computerized phone system and software for the Customer Service reps. Assisted to develop program overviews, training materials, production and support processes. Also helped to trouble-shoot technical issues, brainstorm and design database flow, tasking, and reports, and create new web page templates and site styles. Recommended and helped create the Partner Support Group within the department, specializing in efficient email contact and assistance with account status, pending issues, cancellations, suspensions, deletions, escalations, daily reports, etc. Helped implement many group additional "technical" training sessions, with such topics as basic HTML, servers and domains, networks and internet, Photoshop tips and techniques, etc.

Customer Service Supervisor, 10/99 to 3/01, Nextron Communications, San Jose, CA

Acted as the main point of contact for all clients regarding web sites issues, monitored all inbound and outbound customer service phone calls, analyzed phone reports, processed and reported on site status, trouble-shot and helped process domain names. Provided support for the beta e-commerce program and general web site support. Supervised and trained the customer service department and clients on proprietary web design software, web templates, graphics, internet, technical issues, etc. Also worked with Program Management group to help streamline and document internal and external processes including program overviews and enhancement request quotes.

Quality Assurance Supervisor, 2/99 to 10/99, Nextron Communications, San Jose, CA

Supervised fulfillment group in charge of web site design and development, including graphic art layout and design, image manipulation and creation, HTML coding, etc. Also created, edited, and proofread copy, and provided quality assurance for web sites and online documentation. Aided in some technical writing to help develop and create procedural manuals. Also, provided account management, quality control, and client liaison between web development department and various high-volume clients.

Designed, created, and developed small- to medium-sized web sites utilizing Nextron's proprietary web template tool and also using raw HTML code. Scanned and manipulated all graphics for web-ready quality, in addition to creating logos and graphics from scratch using graphics software, such as PhotoShop.

Office Assistant & Webmaster, 10/93 to 1/98, Seascape Productions Inc., Aptos, CA

Performed filing, bookkeeping, data entry, phones and other administrative duties, as well as web site design and management, and technical/customer support. Determined, designed, placed, and tracked advertising in print, television, direct mail and the Internet. Designed and monitored audio text/voice mail applications.

Tended to fast-paced dining room and kitchen duties of upscale retirement home. Often acted in supervisory capacity as shift leader. Responsible for remembering over 60 senior citizen resident's names and special health needs.