Meet Our Sausalito Staff
Summer Nipomnick, PhD. Licensed Clinical Psychologist, PSY 24956 Clinical Director
Summer Nipomnick, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been involved in the treatment of eating disorders for over a decade. She returns to New Dawn Treatment Centers after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where she was actively engaged in the Body Image Therapy and Research Program. Dr. Nipomnick earned a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from John F. Kennedy University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of California Davis Medical Center and received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University.
Dr. Nipomnick’s experience includes individual, couples, family and group psychotherapy with pediatric, adolescent and adult inpatients and outpatients. She worked as a therapist with the Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders in San Francisco, CA where she helped develop and implement a low-fee outpatient therapy clinic for adults and adolescents with eating disorders. Dr. Nipomnick helped launch La Ventana Eating Disorder Programs San Francisco-based partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient treatment programs. She formerly worked at New Dawn Treatment Centers in their intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization and residential treatment programs.
Dr. Nipomnick has extensive training in the eating disorder field, as well as crisis intervention, and work with patients who have co-morbid medical and psychiatric conditions. Her research has focused on psychological control and recovery from anorexia nervosa along with body image and behavioral health interventions and outcomes. She is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders and the American Psychological Association.
Danielle Aubin Intake Coordinator
Danielle came to New Dawn after having recently graduated from Dominican University of California with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Cum Laude. Along with a passion for helping people in need, Danielle brings a variety of different perspectives to New Dawn. During the Summer 2011, Danielle traveled to Bangalore, India as a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar to study sociology with an emphasis in Indian women’s issues. This experience led to Danielle extending her stay in Bangalore and volunteering at Sneha Care Home where she worked with orphan children infected with HIV. Danielle has worked in the field of Psychology for many years which included volunteering at Fundanino’s Orphanage in Guatemala in child development, completing a year-long behavioral science internship at Canal Alliance in San Rafael, CA working with disadvantaged and at-risk youth. Along with experience in Psychology, Danielle worked for 4 years as an Assistant Manager at Good Earth Natural and Organic Foods in their organic school lunch program. Danielle continues to volunteer as a suicide prevention and grief counseling hotline operator.
Lizzy Solomon, MFTI, IMF #65236 Supervisor Linda Hammond, MFC 29058 Therapist
Lizzy Solomon found New Dawn Eating Disorders Treatment Centers in 2010, fresh out of her Expressive Art Therapy program at California Institute of Integral Studies. Having grown up in Los Angeles, she has seen firsthand the ways in which cultural messages dictate how we should feel about our bodies. Lizzy discovered dance and musical theater as an adolescent and the visual arts in high school. These creative outlets were so powerful in helping her to find her voice, to explore different ways of being in the world, and to experience emotions more fully and courageously. Watching her clients discover the healing power of the arts is one of Lizzy’s favorite aspects of her job.
Candice Hershman, MFT Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, MFT 50660 Therapist
Candice Hershman completed her M.A. in Marriage Family Therapy in 2006 at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco, and is currently working on her doctorate in psychology with a focus on how disciplined creative writing processes enhance consciousness and presence.
Candice has had experience as a program director, case manager, and group psychotherapist in residential treatment working with people who have eating disorders with co-occuring diagnosis. She has a special interest in how nutrition and health play a vital role in emotional health. Candice has special training in working with trauma, and also arts based therapies and depth psychotherapies. However, Candice includes many therapeutic techniques as an augment to her style.
Candice has also served as program director in residential treatment for people with chronic/acute mental health challenges. Her greatest strength is nurturing people dealing with acute mental health diagnosis and dual diagnosis, as well as and children/adults who have experienced both situational and developmental trauma.
Candice serves as treasurer for the Existential Humanistic Institute, and runs a monthly series on psychology and film in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. Candice is a blogger for www.newexistentialists.com, contributed a chapter to Dr. Kirk Schneider’s book Awakening to Awe: Personal Stories of Profound Transformation, (2009), and was a recipient of the 2010 Rollo May Scholarship for her essay, Poetic Existence: Words That Help Us Feel Alive.
Debbie Catz, MSW, CHt Therapist
Debbie, A Bay Area native, is a longtime Social Worker. She maintained a private practice as a Psychotherapist for 10 years during which time she added Clinical Hypnotherapy as an additional modality to help people tap into their innate wisdom. She has extensive clinical and administrative experience working in the substance abuse and criminal justice fields. Debbie currently uses the powerful tools of relaxation/hypnosis to help people tap into their inner strengths through the use of their minds.
Kathleen Someah Nutrition Assistant
Kathleen joins the New Dawn team with a passion for spreading awareness about eating disorders as well as offering assistance to individuals currently suffering from disordered eating and other related behaviors. As a current Undergraduate student at Dominican University of California, Kathleen is actively working towards earning her BA in Psychology with the intent to pursue a PhD program subsequent to graduation. Kathleen exerts her passion for this field as a Peer Educator with Beyond Hunger, a local non-profit focused on providing resources for those struggling with food and body related issues, and also interns at Stanford’s Comprehensive Care Program at El Camino Hospital, which serves as an inpatient unit for eating disorder patients.
Kathleen is a warm and passionate individual who understands the difficulties associated with body image and food, not solely on a professional level but also through personal experience. Kathleen’s dynamic background enables her to work with struggling individuals on a level that exceeds that of many professionally practicing individuals.
Doreen Clark Dance Therapist
Doreen Clark has been a registered dance therapist since 1978. She has founded several Creative Arts Therapy Programs in both New York and California. She has worked closely with other professionals to stress the importance of Dance Therapy in the process of discovery and healing.
