NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS MENTAL HEALTH

Amy Brown, MA

After completing her Master’s degree in Psychology at Pepperdine University, Amy Brown began working to help individuals and families find healing and hope. Ms. Brown came to Discovery’s Resilience with extensive experience managing various eating disorder programs as well as behavioral health facilities. Under Ms. Brown’s leadership, Discovery’s Resilience’s substance abuse and mental health programs have flourished and Ms. Brown now oversees numerous mental health and substance abuse programs throughout southern California. Ms. Brown feels very deeply about the contribution she is making to improve the quality of life for adolescents and their families. One of the things that attracted Ms. Brown to Discovery’s Resilience was the shared commitment to providing the best quality of care to each patient and his or her family.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Charlotte Parks, LMFT

Charlotte has been working in the mental health field with children, adolescents, adults and families for over 20 years. She received a Master’s degree in Movement Therapy from CSUS and a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the School of Professional Psychology. She has worked in a variety of settings from inpatient as an activities therapist with Kaiser Permanente, expressive arts therapist with Serendipity Diagnostic and Treatment Center where she received the ‘Supervisor of the Year Award’, Eleven years working in the non-public school setting providing mental health services to severely disturbed children and adolescents, clinician for Catholic Healthcare West at the Carmichael Children’s Center where she was given the ‘Giving Hands Award’, Program Manager for Roseville outpatient services with Heritage Oaks Hospital, has a private practice and is the current President of the Sierra Foothills Chapter of CAMFT. She has had extensive training in CBT, DBT, Movement Therapy, Expressive Arts Therapy, and is a Certified Trauma Specialist.

Charlotte believes the relationship between the client, their family, and the therapist are of primary importance in facilitating the trust and openness needed for growth and healing change. She believes there are many roads to ‘a life worth living’ and is honored to be a support and companion along the journey.

PRIMARY THERAPIST

Trevor Gjeltema, LMFT

Trevor earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz, and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from Alliant International University. Trevor received intensive training in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) from behavioral tech in conjunction with the Linehan Institute. Trevor was intensively trained in narrative therapy with Dr. David Nylund through the gender health center in conjunction with the Vancouver school of narrative therapy.

Previous to working at the Center for Discovery Trevor was employed at River Oaks are for Children where he a therapist in the Wraparound program where he worked with youth in the CPS and foster care system. He helped to develop and launch the DBT program at River Oak. Trevor also spent two years working in river oak’s Juvenile Justice Diversion Treatment Program. Trevor also spent two years as a counselor and MFT intern at the Gender Health Center in Sacramento where he was trained in working with transgender, gender nonconforming, and other LGBT clients.

Trevor uses his quirky sense of humor and creativity to build rapport with clients, and help them see new possibilities. Trevor likes to adjust his treatment approach to meet the client where they are at, and always strives to help clients find freedom from their problems. He has a passion for teaching his clients skills to help them to be successful and develop the authentic life they want.

REGISTERED DIETITIAN

Heidi Tash-Ngo, RD

Heidi is a Registered Dietitian (RD) specialized in providing nutrition therapy for individuals struggling with disordered eating. She is experienced in treating both adolescents and adults diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and compulsive overeaters.

Heidi has worked in various treatment settings including residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels of care. Additionally, Heidi completed her dietetic internship at The University of Minnesota, the only program in the nation with an emphasis on eating disorder treatment. Heidi’s comprehensive approach is based on the principles of intuitive eating focusing on weight stabilization, elimination of harmful weight reduction behaviors, normalization of eating patterns and challenging erroneous beliefs about food and nutrition.

FACILITY MANAGER

Britney Gay

Britney Gay joined the Sacramento community in 2015 after relocating from Reno, NV. Britney began working with mental health consumers in 2007 at an emergency shelter for abused and neglected children, The Kids Kottage.

After leaving The Kids Kottage in 2012, Britney continued her work with adolescents at Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento, a shelter for youth in the foster care system within the Sacramento community. During this time Britney worked with the clinical team at The Children’s Receiving Home to improve the quality of care and create therapeutic programming, which fostered relationship building, skill building, and life skills.

Following Children’s Receiving Home Britney joined the team at Sacramento Job Corps, a trade school for transition-aged youth seeking to earn their high school diploma and learn a trade. As the Social Development Director Britney provided oversight for the Residential, Recreational and Student Leadership departments. Britney created structure and stability for the 300 students living on campus through the creation of a personal development program that focused on educating students on social skills, healthy relationship building and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. One of Britney’s most popular programs at Job Corps was the Read to Lead program in which participants visited local elementary schools and read to elementary aged children. Participants were able to give back to the community, learn social skills and leadership skills.

Through each of her positions, Britney found herself working with victims of trauma and through this work found her passion and dedication to assisting and healing others. In 2009 Britney received an award recognizing her for her dedication and outstanding care of her clients by Roy Adams, CEO of Adam’s and Associates.