The East Bay Therapist’s managing editor, Paula Moseley, is the subject of this month’s column. She has been an EB-CAMFT member for the past decade, moving from student to trainee to registered intern, and now looking forward to her transition to licensed therapist.

Originally a biology major at Boston University, Paula worked in the biotech/pharmaceutical field for twenty years. Upon retiring, she decided to return to school for her master’s in both organizational behavior and psychotherapy at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. “My internship is actually my retirement,” says Paula with a laugh. “I’m lucky to get to pursue this career at my leisure – I don’t have to rush things!”

According to Paula, this second career was important to her because “I wanted to be able to make a difference in the lives of individuals, especially individuals seeking to escape the damage inflicted on them by family members.” Paula first chose hypnotherapy as a means to this end, but eventually decided she needed more of a theoretical orientation from which to work.

The theoretical orientation that first caught her attention was Jung, whom Paula calls “my first love,” because of his creative use of dreams and fairy tales. Lately, because of the pressures of managed care, she has also begun investigating the use of cognitive and behavioral orientations.

Play therapy is another area of interest to Paula, who sees it as a way to make psychotherapy available to children. “Childhood trauma can result in a betrayal of trust from which it is difficult to recover. Young adults have so many problems to deal with in making a life for themselves. They need to feel good about themselves.”

Paula is now looking for an additional internship that might allow her to expand her work with this population. “The best thing about being an intern is the opportunity it gives you to try different things,” she offers. “There is no stigma about hopping from job to job. It’s all about learning and growing.” When she’s not busy learning and growing as a therapist, Paula finds time to play with her three standard poodles, Happy, Baxter and Blanco. “They provide the fun,” she says of her busy life.

As managing editor of The East Bay Therapist, Paula oversees the assembly and printing of the newsletter, while also serving as a member of the EB-CAMFT Board. Since the newsletter’s recent transition from paper to electronic, Paula is looking at other ways to improve the publication. “Being an on-line newsletter may allow us the freedom to include additional columns, like book reviews and summaries of CEU presentations.”

Although stretched on several fronts, Paula feels that being a working member of EBCAMFT has benefited her in many ways throughout the years. “It’s kept me up to date on legislative changes and given me an opportunity to learn about different internships.”

Most importantly, she adds, “The constant dialogue with other therapists has helped me to approach so many of the problems that come up in the work.”