Mark Montijo

Mark was first licensed in New Mexico as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor where he worked in partnership with Native American healers using traditional healing techniques. He then became licensed in California as a Marriage, Family and Child Counselor and divided his practice between Beverly Hills and Santa Fe. Having deepened the bonds he first made with a network of traditional Native American healers many years ago, Mark continues a 25+ year commitment to track the many connecting threads between Jungian thought and the traditional healing ways of North America. He integrates this into his depth psychology practice and his approach to teaching. As an adjunct faculty member in the DPT program, Mark teaches a special topics course on Indigenous Healing Traditions and Emerging Cultural Paradigms. Mark graduated from the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2006 and began teaching that same year. While working for the U.S. Postal Service in several capacities, Mark investigated and resolved Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, created protocol for threat assessment, coordinated a regional Employee Assistance Program, and managed psychological services in the aftermath of workplace violence. He also coordinated an Employee and Physician Assistance Program and facilitated “Finding the Meaning in Medicine” groups for physicians in a large, busy urban hospital in Los Angeles. He has extensive experience in conducting psychological assessment and report writing in an injury compensation environment. Mark has practiced as a depth psychotherapist in a busy outpatient clinic setting as well as in private practice. Currently a healthcare mediator for a large HMO, Mark works with patients, families, physicians and staff involved in unexpected adverse medical outcomes, weaving the threads of their individual stories into one tapestry. He is a passionate advocate for Patient and Family Centered Care. He also maintains a private practice and delivers pro bono geropsychology services at a skilled nursing facility in Berkeley. Mark wishes to share the following: “My spiritual home is near the Sheep Springs Trading Post on what used to be called Hwy 666. My academic home is here at Pacifica Graduate Institute. My family home is at the foot of Mt. Diablo in Northern California. Spirit, Mystery and Love flow like an underground Stream, connecting all three.”