Meet our Continuing Education Faculty

Gerry Grossman, MA, MFT

Gerry has been successfully training MFT and LCSW candidates for their BBS licensing exams since 1985. He has an extensive knowledge of clinical practice. His teaching style is clear, incisive, humorous and empathic. Gerry has helped thousands of therapists gain additional clinical skills. In private practice, he specializes in working with young children and has conducted therapeutic enrichment groups for twenty years. Additionally, he is a trained hypnotherapist.

Adriane Beck, MA, LMFT

Adriane received her master's degree in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton. Using Gerry Grossman study materials and courses, Adriane passed both the written and clinical vignette MFT licensing exams on her first attempt. She is now teaching Gerry Grossman courses and provides tutoring services for those licensing candidates in the Orange County area.

In the past, Adriane has worked in the school system, providing therapy for elementary aged children. Adriane is currently working, and has worked for the past four years, with families who have experienced domestic violence and abuse at a local agency. As a licensed therapist Adriane is pursuing a practice that will integrate a holistic approach to psychotherapeutic healing.

Samantha Deming, MA, MFT

Samantha has been part of the Gerry Grossman instructional staff since January 2000. Samantha is an asset to the seminar because she has had many years of teaching experience prior to her teaching for the seminar. Students find her easy to follow because she very organized in her presentation. She is also very animated and brings a lot of her natural humor into the classroom.

In addition to teaching for Gerry Grossman Seminars, Samantha maintains a full-time private practice split between Santa Clarita and Encino. Her specialities include couples, anxiety, depression, trauma, E.M.D.R., grief, survivors after suicide, and the treatment of twins.

Renee A. Duffey, Psy.D., MFT

Renee has been teaching with Gerry Grossman Seminars since 1995. She enjoys helping people learn to think critically and utilize their own learning style while preparing for the exams.

Renee has master's degrees in Communications, Applied Spirituality and Counseling Psychology and completed a Doctor of Psychology from the Graduate Theological Foundation with an emphasis on Clinical Family Therapy. She is the Director of Guidance in a private high school and a lecturer in the Counseling Psychology and Gerontology program at Notre Dame de Namur University. Her private practice in Burlingame specializes in the integration of psychology and spirituality and she frequently consults with churches and schools regarding issues of abuse and crisis management.

Kristen Ewers, MA, MFT

Kristen has been teaching and providing individual tutoring for Gerry Grossman Seminars since 2003. She completed her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy at Western Seminary in 2001 and obtained her license in 2003.

Kristen is the director of the Sacramento area Meier Clinics Day Treatment Program as well as the Marriage Intensive Program. She enjoys working with adolescents, families and couples in crisis.

Lori Granger, MS, MFT

Lori is the director of The Center for Mindfulness in Fresno. She specializes in mindfulness-based psychotherapy which marries the practice of mindfulness meditation with cognitive skill building to help relieve anxiety, depression, addictions, emotional eating, multi-task stress, obsessive thinking and relationship challenges.

As an ordained Zen lay practitioner, Lori teaches and develops mindfulness and psychotherapy training workshops for therapists and the general public including Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Awareness and Compassion Training (MB-ACT). Her practice is recognized by the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Stress Reduction Clinic. She has participated in numerous trainings with mindfulness mentors: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Marsha Linehan, John Welwood and Tara Brach. Lori teaches courses in Counseling, Psychotherapy and Mindfulness at CSU, Fresno.

Melanie Haro, MA, MFT

Melanie is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Certified Expressive Arts Therapist. As an intern, Melanie counseled at-risk youth and their families both in drug treatment and at a nonpublic school. After obtaining her license (thanks to GGS), Melanie turned her focus to utilizing the expressive arts for the purpose of facilitating healthy relationships among parents and children.

Melanie created "Belly Bonding," a series of workshops that encourage the development of early attachment between a mother and her unborn baby. This unique specialty combines her passion for the arts with her training and experience as a therapist.

Rocio Hernandez, MFT

Rocio, or "Cio", is an instructor for Gerry Grossman Seminars, Northern California Division. She is an Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner for Marin County Health and Human Services, where she specializes in Spanish speaking survivors of sexual abuse, teen pregnancy and issues of reproductive health. She is involved in many community building efforts in Marin County and has a small private practice in San Rafael. She is also on the Institutional Review Board for Kaiser Foundation Research Institute.

Sharon Law, MA, MFT

Sharon has been part of the Gerry Grossman Seminars crew since July 2004. She earned her Bachelor of Social Sciences Degree in Social Work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and worked as a Social Worker in Hong Kong for 4 years before coming to the U.S. in 1997 to pursue her graduate study in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Sharon is a licensed therapist, has extensive training in Structural Family Therapy and is currently in advanced training with the Pacific Gestalt Institute in Los Angeles. She has written mock clinical vignettes and uses her own experience in passing the WCV exam to offer specific test taking strategies to GGS students.

Sharon has extensive outpatient clinical experience working with clients having a wide range of mental illnesses; she has also delivered school-based counseling to students at elementary and high schools from LAUSD. She also has supervised MFT Interns while coordinating an intensive intervention program for high risk children and youth of different ethnicities. Sharon's Asian background and acculturation experience in coming to the US help her to have sensitivity to diversity issues. She is also a world traveler who has traveled to more than twenty countries.

Suzanne Mell, MA, MFT

Suzanne has been teaching courses and providing one-to-one tutoring for Gerry Grossman mostly in the Sacramento area, since September 1999. She received her Masters degree from National University - Sacramento in 1995 and passed her licensing exams in January 1999. Her area of expertise is working with children, adolescents and their families, but over the years she has worked with many different ages and stages.

Suzanne has worked for Amador County Mental Health as a child clinician and as their Children's System of Care Coordinator, and has also provided clinical supervision for MFT and CSW Interns. Currently she is in private practice in the Amador & Sacramento County areas and is a contract clinician at Rite of Passage - Sierra Ridge group home.

Suzanne is empathetic to those preparing for their exams. She presents the course materials in a well organized manner and also uses humor to decrease her students' test anxiety so that they can remember that they are competent human beings.

Chuck Moshontz, MA, MFT

Chuck is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a diverse private practice specializing in men's issues, couples counseling, and working with parents and children.

In addition to his private practice and teaching at Gerry Grossman Seminars, Chuck is an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University. He supervises interns at the Antioch Counseling Center and at Southern California Counseling Center, where he is also a faculty member in the clinical training program and the community counselor certification program. Chuck's first career, in television and radio broadcasting, helped him to develop skills in language and oral presentation which come in handy preparing GGS students to pass their licensing exams.

Jorid Nygard, MA, MFT

Jorid has been preparing therapists for their MFT licensing exams since 1991. Through the many years of helping develop course materials and teaching courses for the MFT Written and WCV exams, Jorid has developed a comprehensive mastery of all the subject areas involved in passing the exams.

Her high level of energy and wonderful sense of humor make her a popular teacher. Many exam candidates experience the exam preparation process as an overwhelming and daunting challenge and greatly appreciate her command and overview of the many subjects involved, finding her teaching style and structure extremely beneficial.

Jorid has been a practicing psychotherapist since 1988 and has specialized in the areas of couples therapy, addiction, trauma, divorce and chronic illness. She runs divorce support groups as well as groups for people in early recovery from addiction. Jorid combines a contemporary psychodynamic approach with an experiential style. In addition to teaching for Gerry Grossman Seminars, Jorid is an adjunct faculty member at Pepperdine University.

Patricia E. Patton, Ph.D.

Patti is a clinical psychologist (PSY 13266) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC 27419). She created such Gerry Grossman Seminars Continuing Education courses as Domestic Violence, Anxiety Disorders and Anger Management. She was also instrumental in the development of the Gerry Grossman Seminars BBS exam prep courses for LCSW candidates, and continues to teach those courses.

Scott L. Singer, MA, MFT

Scott has worked for AIDS Project Los Angeles since 1994 and has experience running their intensive in-home case management and mental health programs. He maintains a private practice in Los Angeles which focuses on issues pertaining to gays & lesbians, HIV/AIDS, and addictions.

Pam Sirota, Psy.D., MFT

Pam has a private practice in West Los Angeles and Encino specializing in social skills groups, family issues, children and adolescents, grief support, and parenting. Her extensive experience as a special education teacher and pre-school director makes her an ideal instructor. She has been working as a private GGS tutor since becoming licensed in 2005. Pam has received her doctorate as a Clinical Psychologist.

H. Dan Smith, EdD, MFT

Dan is a licensed marriage and family therapist whose practice has been within a busy psychiatry office for over 15 years. His primary clinical interests include treatment of adolescent and adult populations as well as family therapy; most of his clinical practice has been within managed care and EAP environments. He is a professor of counseling at California State University, Fresno where he specializes in law and ethics, child abuse assessment and treatment, therapy techniques, and supervision of therapists in field settings. Dan has developed various supervision technologies that are in widespread use within counselor training programs across the country.

Andrew Teton, MA, MFT

Andrew received his Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, Santa Barbara, and has also participated in the Hakomi Body Inclusive Therapy training. He studied with Gerry Grossman for both his written and orals exams, and, after passing both on the first attempt, Andrew started offering Gerry Grossman Seminars classes for both the written and WCV exams in Santa Barbara where he has found interns in the Central Coast area extremely receptive to having locally based licensing classes.

Andrew is noted for his sense of humor and has served as the "comedy break" entertainer at several local CAMFT functions.

Kris Topaz, MA, MFT

Kris comes from a background of teaching people from birth to adult, having received a MA in Human Development with a specialization in parent-community work, teaching credential, and MA in MFT at Pacific Oaks College. In addition to teaching at Gerry Grossman Seminars, she is faculty in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Phoenix, where she teaches the MFT, practicum and psychology courses. Kris maintains a practice providing energy balancing healing and pastoral services, teaches courses in meditation and healing, and has taught in public schools. Kris worked for fourteen years as a bilingual foster care social worker and parent educator. Having passed the exams on her first attempt due to Gerry's seminars, she has been licensed since 1997 working in various clinical settings. Kris serves as the Clinical Director, L.A. Chapter, A Home Within and as a Director on the Board of Directors, Ca. Division of AAMFT.

Kris uses a Humanistic therapeutic style in her private practice in Monrovia, and works in Spanish with the Latino community. In her leisure time Kris enjoys riding her horse which lives with her on her ranchette on the edge of the national forest.

Anne Wilford, MA, MFT

Anne received her Masters degree from John F. Kennedy University and has been an instructor with GGS for 14 years. Her clinical experience includes working with adolescent psychiatric in-patient programs and adult, dual diagnosis day treatment. For the last 15 years, she has had a private practice in Berkeley working with individuals in long-term, in-depth therapy and transformational couples work. She has over 35 years of teaching experience and truly enjoys the balance of teaching and practicing in-depth psychotherapy.