About Us

We work with clients of all ages and backgrounds. Our youngest clients are typically 5 or 6, and the oldest are 91. We choose to work with couples, individuals, and families because every client helps to remind us of connections between the things that happen to us throughout the life cycle and how we choose to cope with adversity throughout our lives. I love that we come to work never really knowing what the day will bring. Often the day brings light and hope to those who are struggling.

I spent my first thirteen years post college working in a corporate environment, most of those years devoted to employee development, employee education, and leadership coaching. I worked with individuals and teams to increase work productivity and improve morale in the work environment. At that point, I was able to help people make some positive behavior changes, but I realized that education can only go so far when dealing with many individuals who needed, frankly, more help than I was trained to provide at that point in my career.

After my corporate years, while working as an adult educational consultant, I began a project with Dr. James DeVore to create a guide for improving relationships and communication between doctors and patients. We spent two years collecting data and interviews that we turned into a book called White Coat Wrinkle. Writing together was great fun, since we both seem to share a rather off-beat sense of humor. When the book was done, andDr. DeVore and I decided that actually marketing the book that we spent so much time writing “wasn’t our thing” I decided that becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist would allow me to finally work with individuals, couples, and families at a level that could facilitate more permanent change. While completing my 3200 trainee and intern hours, I worked in the Medi-Cal clinic at Social Advocates for Youth. I worked youth between 5-25, which often included working with families in order to provide a healthier and more stable environment for the child who was being brought in for treatment. after that, i interned in private practice, and thus was born my love of therapy.

In this Private Practice I met Will Gayowski, who introduced me to Esin Zamora, and all of us now practice together in my Office.

Deb Skinner

Will Gayowski

Originally from Canada in Southern Ontario, Will completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Waterloo before moving to Seattle and gradually progressing his way down the west coast and settling down in Santa Rosa. He worked for 5 years in the natural gas industry as a geological technician and while deciding oil & gas was not his calling completed a Masters in Counseling Psychology online at Argosy in the Bay Area and became a licensed therapist in 2014.

Will has a diverse background education and training. He volunteered 2 years at Social Advocates for Youth working with youth (5-25) and families. He then worked at Center Point for over a year supporting clients with mild to moderate mental health needs and co-occurring drug & alcohol problems. One of his roles at Center Point was running a small drug treatment group out of Mill Street Center, a homeless shelter in Marin County.

Since then he has been employed by Sonoma County for the last five years: as an Alcohol and Drug Specialist at the probation department, as a Mental Health Clinician & suicide prevention specialist at Sonoma County Jail, and now with transitional aged youth (young adults 18-25) with severe mental illness.

Will has been in part time private practice at Deb’s practice since June 2018. He works mainly from a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) orientation but has a humanistic underpinning that values establishing a strong therapeutic relationship with Clients and focusing on the unique experiences and strengths of individuals.

Will is married and has 3 children, and one fur child as part of a mixed, blended family. Will feels this background gives him context, sensitivity, and appreciation of the challenges of co-parenting and racial relationships in today’s society and can benefit many working relationships.

Esin Zamora

Esin Zamora was born in Mersin, Turkey. Fluent in English, Turkish and Spanish. Has been providing multicultural and multilingual therapy since 2008. Offering individual, family, and child therapy. Extensive experience in strengths based behavioral therapy for children who have experienced trauma, crisis stabilization for children and families, acculturation issues, attachment and relationship issues. Modalities used include -Functional Behavior Analysis, Dialactical Behavioral Therapy Techniques, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques, with an existential theoretical background.