About Katy Gaddess
I am passionate about helping people find joy and peace in their lives. In their homes, relationships, and work environments. I truly believe it’s possible and that everyone deserves it.
How my passion developed
Growing up I was raised by an alcoholic and I learned very quickly that when you live with an addict, everything is about them. Your life and all your day to day experiences revolve around the addict and their moods and struggles. Everything and everyone else in the home comes second to that.
Going through this experience taught me that when things are not well at home, specifically within dysfunctional and abusive family dynamics, the rest of your life suffers. This compelled me to want to be a therapist and help people going through difficult things that no one was talking about.
Hi! I’m Katy Gaddess
What my personal experience taught me
Despite understanding dysfunctional family dynamics and knowing what environments were good for me or not, I didn’t fully understand how my history had effected me on a deeper emotional level.
Even though I knew what healthy relationships or environments were supposed to be my emotional knowing kept putting me in places where my needs and feelings were not being met and I was drained and exhausted. And let’s be clear, I didn’t want to be in this situation or feeling this way, I knew I wasn’t happy. I was doing this because it was familiar to me. And when something is familiar to us in such a deep way, changing is hard and literally feels impossible.
It wasn’t until I stopped focusing on my outside circumstances and started to do deep emotional work on myself that things started to change for me.
While this experience was painful and hard it was also eye opening. It became clear to me as I looked at my professional and personal experiences that so many others were in the same position. Struggling in toxic relationships and work environments where their needs weren’t being met or even acknowledged and despite how hard they worked nothing was getting better.
My focus in my private practice now is to help others understand how and why their early conditioning and experiences have affected them (not just on the surface ways but the deep ones) and to learn tools on how to truly care for themselves now so that they can move forward and have the life and relationships they are longing to have.
My credentials
I have a BA in Psychology from Auburn University and an MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University. I was a social worker and mental health professional for Santa Barbara County and the City of San Francisco, for 20 years combined focusing on children and families. This included extensive experience in physical and emotional abuse, addiction, severe mental illness, serious medical and health conditions, and trauma. I have been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for 20 years and have been in private practice for 7 years.