Coordinator Couple & Family Specialization
Dr. Addison heads the Couple and Family specialization in Pleasant Hill, and is passionate about using family systems theory to guide clinical work aimed at supporting happier, healthier relationships. She is a Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. Her professional work focuses on couples, GLBT clients, families with adolescents, and those who live in marginalized communities. She practices from a feminist, multicultural, integrative family systems perspective; her work is concerned with relational justice, issues of gender and culture, the operation of power in relationships and increasing capacity for intimacy and emotion.
She is the co-author of five chapters in "The Therapist's Notebook for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Clients," and of a chapter on sexuality and supervision in "Readings in Family Therapy Supervision." In December 2008, "Multicultural Couple Therapy" was released, which includes two chapters with Dr. Addison as the lead author, one on white privilege and one on work with minority same-sex couples. As n Assistant Professor, she often teaches Systemic Theory and Family Therapy, Couples Therapy (focusing on the work of John Gottman and the Emotionally Focused Therapy of Susan Johnson), and various family therapy theories such as Bowen Family Systems, Nagy/Contextual Therapy, Metaframeworks, Satir/Human Validation Process, and feminist therapy.
B.A., Indiana State University, 1994
M.A., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1996
M.A., Syracuse University, 2000
Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2007