So, who is Candace Colliflower, the therapist?

I was born and raised in Butler, PA, a rural area north of Pittsburgh. During the 60’s and 70’s, as a result of the failure of the steel industry, Butler became a pretty desolate place, with high unemployment and seemingly no future prospects. So when I graduated from college, I was ready to find a different life. I attended Grove City College, a small liberal arts school, and studied Communication Arts. This included English, TV, radio, etc. My secret wish was to become a news anchor or TV weather person. More realistically, I also made sure I got my Teaching Credential.

A friend gave me the opportunity to room with her in Pittsburgh, and I found a job in sales to make the rent. I spent 3 years working for L’Eggs pantyhose as a sales rep, then Trainer. By then I wanted a better job, and began working for Bell & Howell, recruiting for DeVry Institutes of Technology. I spoke at School assemblies and traveled to students’ homes to enroll them. I became a Trainer for them, then was offered a promotion to go to their Columbus, OH campus. After 1 year, I was transferred to their Chicago school, which offered more growth opportunities. It was during this period that I became very interested in pursuing a career in Psychology. However, Chicago only offered full-time graduate programs, so I didn’t pursue it.

I was offered a job to sell tax and legal publications at Commerce Clearing House, and had a downtown Chicago sales territory. In 1988 I met a man who lived in Santa Monica, CA. We got engaged and I was given a transfer and promotion with CCH to come to LA. The relationship didn’t work out, but the job did. It was in LA that I was finally able to attend Pepperdine University part-time in the evenings, and still work full-time to support myself. After receiving my Master’s in General Psychology, I intended to pursue a PhD and do research.

I took a year off school, and, in that year, I met my future husband. He owned a Golf Management company and I did Payroll and HR for him. When it was time to apply for PhD. Programs, we decided the extra years would not necessarily pay off. So I returned to Pepperdine to receive my 2^nd Master’s in Counseling Psychology. On the personal side, my husband and I had a son, then a daughter four years later. We have lived in the SGV ever since.

As part of the program, we had to accumulate 3,000 hours of experience, 500 of which had to be children and family. I found a placement at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, working in their therapeutic preschool program Cheerful Helpers. It was here that I was introduced to Stanley Greenspan’s work and with attachment theory. I discovered I loved working with these developmentally delayed children; there was daily satisfaction in seeing their progress. I continued at CHPS for several more years past the required hours, and ran Social Skills groups and did 1-to-1 therapy in the classrooms.

Through CHPS, I met a family that really appreciated the work I did with their daughter. They were purchasing a horse ranch and wanted to have me be the resident therapist there. I conducted Social Skills groups and worked with the children individually while they were riding and tending to the horses. The ranch had to close with the Great Recession of 2008.

Throughout this time, I had a boutique private practice in South Pasadena. I saw all adults there. Over time, I saw that it would be necessary to do marketing, and possibly look into accepting insurance clients, with the passage of Obamacare. This prospect seemed so overwhelming to me. That’s when I found Soultenders.

I came to Soultenders full-time in 2017, and was delighted that they would take care of everything I needed to run a practice; I could focus on just the clients. Also, because ST accepts insurance, I have been able to work with people from so many different backgrounds. This fills the part of me that wants to give to those less fortunate, not just the people who can afford a couple hundred dollars per session.

Currently, I see all adults, individuals and couples. My specialty areas include fertility counseling, couples therapy, re-parenting and attachment, EMDR, depression and anxiety.