Therapists

Cora Becker

Cora is a Sleep Therapist at the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology and Global Health and a minor in Spanish Language Studies. After graduation, she spent three years working as a case manager at a community health clinic, working to provide resources and support to underserved clients with complex medical conditions. Cora is currently pursuing her Masters in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley and is concurrently interning in medical settings, first a grief counselor, and next working with clients diagnosed with dementia and their families. She is interested in working with older adult populations and is particularly passionate about the connection between sleep, memory, and trauma.

Lauren Bondenlos

Lauren Bodenlos (they/them) is a Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research clinic. In 2020, Lauren graduated from Agnes Scott College with a BA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Lauren is a current MSW student at UC Berkeley where they are specializing in aging. Lauren’s approach is rooted in the recovery model, and they aim to center their clients’ sense of strength, autonomy and creativity in session. Prior to starting at Cal, Lauren worked as a Community Specialist with older adults living in the Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods of San Francisco. Lauren’s professional interests include aging, disability justice, trauma, substance use, and impulsivity.

Marlen Diaz

Marlen Diaz is a doctoral student in Dr. Allison Harvey’s lab in the Clinical Science program. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish Language & Literature with a minor in Education. Marlen worked at a community mental health clinic providing short-term prevention and early intervention services. She then returned to UC Berkeley, as a Project Coordinator with The Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. Under the mentorship of Dr. Harvey, Marlen is interested in researching the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments in the community setting. She is also interested in researching transdiagnostic treatments, mood disorders, behavioral patterns and stigma.

Haley Gilford

Haley (she/her) is a Sleep Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She graduated from Seattle University with a B.A. in Criminal Justice, a specialization in Forensic Psychology, and Minors in English and Psychology. For the past 7 years, Haley has provided mental health care to diverse populations, focusing on families facing severe mental illness. This experience has included intensive case management and group facilitation for adults in supportive housing, and crisis stabilization services for youth and families at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Haley is a current MSW student at UC Berkeley specializing in Children, Youth, and Families. Haley’s professional interests include trauma-informed care, disability justice, sleep as a meaningful intervention, and psychoeducation and collaboration with families. She plans to pursue her LCSW and is passionate about healing through connection and transforming systems of care in California.

Tania Jarjuora

Tania is Sleep Therapist and Clinical Assessor with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She has her BA in Human Biology and Society with a concentration in Bioethics and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles. During her time at UCLA, she worked in a Perceptual Processing and Computational Lab under Dr. Zili Liu while simultaneously participating in California Teach. Tania proceeded to receive her Masters in Teaching, researching the impact of societal labels on educational outcomes in middle-school aged youth in Harlem, NY. Her research propelled her into analyzing disparities that exist because of societal labels and hierarchies and pivoted her career interests into social welfare work. Tania is a second year Masters student at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. She hopes to receive her LCSW to do both micro and macro level social work to improve outcomes of underserved youth and study the impacts of social determinants of health into adulthood. Her interests are in implementation science to modify existing educational systems and assessing treatment efficacy in serving trauma-impacted youth.

Sophia Oliver

Sophia (she/her) is a Project Coordinator and Sleep Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She graduated summa cum laude from UC Davis with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Public Health Sciences. Sophia began as a Research Assistant for Dr. Allison Harvey in June 2021 working on projects involving memory support strategies, habit formation, and implementation and dissemination science. Throughout undergraduate, she participated in translational neuroscience research at UC Davis, and completed her honors thesis under the guidance of Dr. Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz examining how sleep quality may impact posttraumatic stress symptoms in those who have been exposed to community and gun violence. Sophia’s research interests include transdiagnostic treatment development, violence exposure, and the effects of sleep quality on mental health outcomes. She will be applying to Clinical Psychology Ph.D.‘s in 2024.

Isabel Ponte

Isabel Ponte is a therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research clinic. She is a second-year MSW student at UC Berkeley. She completed her first-year MSW internship at Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, where she worked with refugees and survivors of torture. She also has prior experience in phone crisis counseling with the perinatal population. After school she would like to receive her LCSW. Her professional interests center on mind-body connections and include insomnia, perinatal mood disorders, acculturative stress, somatic approaches to trauma recovery, and transdiagnostic perspectives on mental health treatment.

Nena Salazar

Nena Salazar is a Clinical Project Coordinator and Sleep Therapist in the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She previously attended the UC Berkeley post-baccalaureate certificate program, where she conducted research as part of a treatment development team in the areas of treatment dissemination, implementation, habit formation, and transdiagnostic approaches to mental health. She completed her B.A. in psychology at Naropa University, where she trained extensively in mindfulness and compassion practices in conjunction with Eastern and Western psychology studies. She has worked in the Harvey lab since January of 2021. Nena hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology. Her research interests include treatment development, dissemination, and implementation; habit formation, mindfulness, trauma, psychosis, and transdiagnostic approaches to mental health and disorder.

Julia Spencer

Julia is a Project Coordinator and Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She has a BS in Molecular biology from Mills College and a Post Baccalaureate certification through the UC Berkeley Research Psychology program. Julia has 3 years of experience working as a patient care manager through Alameda Health Systems at Highland hospital, 3 years of experience as a research associate and clinical interviewer in a lab focusing on the effects of stress on mental health and has been working with Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic for the last year and a half. Julia’s research interests include the relationship between mental health and sleep outcomes, particularly considering resilience and coping from early life stressors. In the future, Julia plans to be working on a PhD in Clinical Psychology.