Our Psychologists and Counselors
Bay Area Clinical Associates, LLC has licensed, experienced mental health practitioners who are knowledgeable and compassionate. While each of us has the general training and experience necessary to assist most clients, we each have additional, specialized training and experience for helping with particular issues. A summary of our credentials are listed below:
Catalina (Kati) Mandoki Arata, Ph.D.
Dr. Arata is a licensed psychologist who specializes in the treatment of depression, anxiety, adjustment issues and abuse related trauma. She obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Auburn University in 1989, completing a pre-doctoral internship at the National Crime Victim’s Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has been in private practice since 1991 and also was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Alabama from 1991 through 2004. Dr. Arata’s clinical practice focuses on providing direct care to adults, adolescents, and children, as well as providing forensic evaluations and expert testimony in cases involving sexual trauma and child custody. She has extensive experience in PTSD and the effects of sexual victimization, depression, anxiety, and coping with divorce. She provides assessment and treatment services to children and adults, educational testing for ADHD, learning disabilities, gifted evaluations, college/career counseling, and forensic evaluations. Dr. Arata employs an eclectic approach to treatment, focusing primarily on cognitive-behavioral principles, working to help individuals master their negative thoughts and behaviors by changing how they view and respond to life’s challenges. Click here to see Dr. Arata’s full Curriculum Vitae.
M. Hope Jackson, Ph.D.
Dr. Jackson is a licensed psychologist trained in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), an extensively researched approach that has been proven to be effective in the treatment of many disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression, and bulimia nervosa. CBT is an approach that lends itself well to most problems with which a client might present, including mood problems, relationship issues, or situational factors. Dr. Jackson has specialized training in using this approach with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder; anxiety disorders such as OCD and panic disorder among others, and depression in adults and adolescence. Dr. Jackson obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia, completing a pre-doctoral internship at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, and her post-doctoral year at the Eating Disorders Recovery Center in Athens, Georgia.
Ellen Ladd Odom, M.S., L.P.C.
Ms Odom is a licensed Professional Counselor who has provided services to children, adolescents, and adults since 1996. Although she uses a variety of techniques to assist clients, she typically adopts a solution-focused approach to therapy that is collaborative, practical, and goal-driven. This approach assumes that all people have some knowledge of what would make their life better, even though they need help describing the details of that better life. In other words, everyone who seeks help already possesses at least the minimal skills necessary to create solutions to his/her problem. Ellen works with a variety of issues, specializing in relational problems, anxiety management, depression, grief, divorce, recovery, behavior management, ADHD, social skills, gay/lesbian issues, certain personality disorders, and parenting skills. Ellen also conducts psycho-educational testing to determine one’s cognitive abilities, processing skills, academic achievement skills, emotional status, and behavioral functioning to assist in academic planning. She also assesses personality functioning when necessary to facilitate the therapeutic process.