Patricia Contaxis, M.A. is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. For 31 years, she maintained a private practice in psychotherapy with middle school and high school age youth, parents, couples and individual adults. She was on the faculty of Diablo Valley College and was an adjunct professor of psychology at John F. Kennedy University. Her community clinical work included: school-based counselor at Walnut Creek Intermediate School and Oakland’s Ralph Bunche School; staff therapist for The Ann Martin Children’s Center, La Cheim Residential Treatment Centers, and the Bay Area Youth Development Agency; and 22 years as consulting clinical director to Building Futures, an East Bay agency providing emergency shelter, domestic violence programs and transitional and permanent housing to women and children. Ms. Contaxis currently consults to Bay Area schools on social, behavioral and community issues. She is a popular public speaker. The list of Bay Area schools where she has given parent education programs include Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Piedmont public schools; The Julia Morgan School for Girls, Bishop O’Dowd, and St. Theresa School in Oakland; The Dandelion Nursery School in Berkeley, and Blue Skies in Oakland.