Rachael Van Pelt Email & Phone Number

Solvang, Ca

Solvang, Ca

Practice management, treatment planning and scheduling coordinator for optimal dental operations.

Santa Ynez, Ca

El Puente Community School

Provide crisis counseling and on-site emotional and behavioral support at a probationary school in Lompoc.

Solvang, Ca

Assist children, adults and families in processing their emotions, exploring their family dynamics and replacing maladaptive patterns with positive ones.

Developed a small program help local high school students choose what post-graduate endeavors they wanted to pursue; organized group sessions to format student resumes and headed private tutorials aiming to help graduating high school seniors apply for universities, colleges, and specialized vocational programs.

Non-profit agency that provides short-term, crisis shelter for adolescents and family therapy for their parents. Therapy domains currently offered: art therapy, topic group therapies, couples counseling, family therapy, substance abuse treatment. Some of the skills acquired are as follows: therapeutically joining, interviewing adolescents and families who are difficult to engage, efficiently generating hypotheses and assessing for emotionally reactive patterns in families, escalating conflict in the family in order to break a family impasse, containing families in session while allowing for emotional process, using directives to engage clients in exercise, challenging clients without damaging the therapeutic relationship, constructively dealing with a family's resistance to change, negotiating collaborative relationships with professionals from other systems that are working with the family, completing detailed initial clinical assessments using language from theory of choice, clinical progress notes per client/family, effectively reducing and collecting fees for service, considering cultural differences when in session and with regards to assessment, proficient in DSM-IV 5-Axis diagnoses. Clinical supervision consisted of live observation, formal case presentations with video, one-way mirror observations with feedback from the treatment team, case management, and theories and techniques training. Actively collaborated with an on-site treatment team and outside professionals.

California School of Professional Psychology Regional MFT Representative. Duties were attending weekly meetings, submitting written goals for the academic year, preparing and distributing meeting agendas, representing the Irvine campus at system-wide student meetings, participate in monthly conference calls with the University Student Government Association (includes all four college campuses), provide an annual written report of SGA events, conducts general correspondence of SGA to administration and student body, initiate activities to improve general well-being of students, and arrange guest speakers for lectures and discussions relevant to each specific academic major.

Experimental Research Assistant for Dr. James Blascovich in the Psychophysiology Department at UCSB. Utilized a method that uses cardiovascular indices to mark distinct motivational states as well as virtual reality technology to study psychological phenomenon. I learned to use this technology in the experiments as a tool to create a link between culture, bodily perception, and emotion. Responsibilities included recording and analyzing data, administering questionnaires, hooking up EKG sensors, playing a confederate, evaluating work performance, peer supervision, and regulating participant/experiment times to accommodate scheduling.

Event Coordinator for UCSB Army ROTC Program. Responsibilities included planning and budgeting finances, organizing and assigning committees (all male), delegating tasks, overseeing department relations, mediator of conflict and stress, leadership, competence, desire to be active within a community, and meeting deadline with order and success.

Educational Assistant and volunteer for GGSE’s Harding Elementary School Project, a pilot study aimed at observing the effects of constructional feedback in English for Spanish-speaking students. Responsibilities included evaluating an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) per student; observing students in order to modify and implement accommodations; working closely with the school psychologist, speech pathologist, and school faculty to discuss and execute each individual’s IEP goals; attending faculty meetings; and providing knowledgeable guidance to children with low self esteem and mild pervasive developmental disorders.

Masters Degree, Marriage And Family Therapy

Activities and Societies: Student Government Association (SGA), California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (CAMFT), American.

Bachelors In Arts, Research Psychology

Activities and Societies: Army ROTC cadet, Alpha Delta Pi sorority member, National Society for Collegiate Scholars member, Assistant.