Therapist Profile

Name:
Sally Diane, EdD
Professional Title:
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Email:
Location:
41865 Boardwalk Suite 217 Palm Desert, CA 92211-9033
Phone:
(760) 777-0167
Website:
www.drsallydiane.com
License Number
LMFT44515
Practicing Since:
2008
Additional Licenses:
MFT

Personal Statement

Personal Statement:
I completed 14 years of a college education. I was able to indulge my deep love of literature and earn my undergrad degree in English. I concurrently earned my degree in speech and theatre. My studies provided me with a rich appreciation for our cultural history, and theater. To this day, literature continues to feed my soul as well as nourish my mind. I also earned my teaching certification and began my career as a high school English teacher and speech coach. I was assigned to teach the students determined to be “at risk.” I enjoyed working with this population because I was drawn to students who were troubled and in need of support. This led me to train to become a full time school counselor. I began working with students experiencing a great deal of pain. I also worked closely with teachers and parents to provide a team approach of support to my students and their healing. I segued from school counseling into community counseling. I began working with the county and providing counseling services to families who were torn apart by drugs and alcohol. I was commissioned to handle the hardcore cases of parents who lost their children because of their drug and alcohol use. My goal was to provide individual counseling to the parents and help them through their struggles with the disease of their addiction. I also provided counseling to the children of these parents, helping them understand that they were not responsible for the addiction, couldn’t fix it, but could learn tools to help themselves. I also helped them work through their conflicted feelings of hating the disease and loving their parents. My greatest joy came from helping the families reunite and begin the recovery journey together. I deeply believe that families function best when they can work together and support one another into healing. While earning my doctorate, I taught counseling courses at the masters level at Drake. I found a great deal of satisfaction teaching professionals to hone their skills as therapists. My doctorate focused on how care-giving affected loved ones who were caring for someone with a terminal illness. This topic was very near and dear to my heart. I trained in Hospice end-of-life and provide support to the terminally ill and their loved ones. Once I relocated to California I worked as a therapist in a group home for troubled youth. Again these were young people separated from their families for a myriad of reasons. Through individual and group counseling my ultimate goal was to help reunite these young people with their families – when possible. I also worked as a therapist for foster children and families. In addition to this work, I also taught parenting classes to hopeful foster parents. My tenure at the Betty Ford Center provided me a wide range of opportunities. As a trainer for professionals, I was able to work with intelligent, thoughtful professionals from a myriad of professional careers interested in understanding the disease and treatment of addiction. I worked with The Betty Ford Center physicians to design curriculum, I hosted visiting professionals from countries around the world; Finland, Turkey, England, Japan, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand, among others. I also provided several presentations to various organizations, such as The Sigma Chi Organization. While at the Center I had the good fortune to take workshops and develop my skills in Crisis Intervention. Working in private practice is my professional first love. I am dedicated to providing a safe, secure, confidential environment for clients who desire to move through painful life events into transformative, life-affirming opportunities for new growth. I work with a variety of modalities – always client-centered. I am use a technique that has proven to be very helpful to many of my clients called Life Span Integration. It is a technique which helps to undo the trauma that often starts in childhood and is carried forth into adulthood. It is a technique which nurtures the inner child while empowering the adult. I graduated high school at the age of 17. I was then on my own and started putting myself through college. I married my high school sweetheart. We had a daughter. In our 12th year of marriage he developed melanoma cancer and three years later, after much suffering, he died. I joined a club I never wanted to belong to - the Widow's Club. It was a painful road back from grief and sorrow. Together my daughter and I walked that path and found our way out of the intense pain. It was an unexpected miracle in my life when I found love again. I have been happily married for the past 16 years to a wonderful man who has brought great joy to my life and embraced my daughter as his own. Together we adopted a 5 year old boy who was born profoundly deaf. We learned so much about being adoptive parents, as well as parents of a special needs child. Another remarkable journey!

About My Practice

Office Hours
41865 Boardwalk Suite 217, Palm Desert, Ca. By appointment: Monday - Friday. I will consider weekends.
Services
Providing individual, couples and family counseling. Treatment specialization includes: Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Couples Counseling Family Counseling Addiction and Recovery Couples in Recovery Grief Counseling Parent Support Stress Management Ability to use sign language with deaf clients I understand Deaf Culture Counseling with Parents of deaf children and special needs I work with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues providing services that span from therapy for depression and grief counseling to parenting support, couples counseling and beyond. In a comfortable and supportive atmosphere, I offer a highly personalized approach tailored to each of my clients individual needs to help attain the personal growth they’re striving for in their professional and personal lives. I also provide Groups for the following: Partners Supporting Partners: For partners who are supporting their partners who are molestation survivors. Heroine's Journey Group: A support group for women who survived and are in the process of healing from molestation.
Insurance
Cigna, MHN, No Insurance Accepted, Private Pay, Sliding Scale, Tricare
Credit Cards Accepted
American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Free Initial Consult
No
Offers Teletherapy
None

Education

Degrees
Ed.D, Education Administration, 2008 M.S., Counseling, Drake University, 1997

Area of Specialty

Specialites:
Addictions
Adolescents
Anxiety
Assertiveness Training
Attachment Therapy
Career Stress and Changes
Chronically Mentally Ill
Childhood Trauma
Critical Incident Stress Management
CoDependant/Adult Children of Alcoholics
Communication Skills
Couples
Crisis Intervention
Depression/Clinical Depression
Divorce/Dissolution
Domestic Violence
Employment Issues
Ethnicity/Multi-Cultural Relationships
Families
Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Questioning
Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming
Group Therapy
Grief/Loss Terminally Ill
Hypnosis
Issues of Abuse (Abused)
Issues of Abuse (Trauma)
Infertility/Adoption/Pregnancy
Individual
Interracial Couples
Life Transitions/Mid-Life Issues
Mediation
Parenting
Persons With Disabilities
Phobias
Physically Challenged
Pre-Marriage Counseling
PsychoEducational
Post Traumatic Stress Disorders
Relationships
Self Esteem/Personal Growth
Single Parents
Step/Blended Families
Stress
Telephone/Online Therapy
Terminally Ill
Trauma
Women's Issues

Other

Theoretical Orientation
Behavioral
Brief/Solution Focused Therapy
Cognitive-Behavioral
Cognitive
Communications
Developmental/Depth
Eclectic (Many Therapies)
Family Systems
Gestalt
Humanistic/Existential
Jungian
Narrative
Psychoanalytic
Psychodynamic
Psychology
Self Psychology
Systems
Certifications
Interventionist CISM
Languages Spoken
English, Sign
Ethnicity
Caucasian (Non-Hispanic)

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