David Hurwitz
Clinical Director
For adolescents, he holds the philosophy that if you want to affect change, you have to recognize both the individual and the individual within their family system. If you can embrace and include the whole family, you can give the young person the best chance at long-term success. In his work with teens and families, David strives to impart tools for a healthy dependency, supporting parents in realistic healthy boundaries while working with the adolescent to strengthen their toolbox and ultimately improve their emotional wellbeing.
David comes to Ascend as a veteran clinician having worked extensively in prestigious treatment centers establishing clinical programming and overseeing all aspects of treatment from intake to discharge. David has a wealth of experience leading process, didactic and psychodynamic-oriented groups as well as individual and family therapy. He understands that the impact of trauma or severe life stressors can be profound. To that end, he brings to the table a nonjudgmental caring approach that is practical and solution oriented. Clients have described David as being direct, in the most gentle way. His greatest passion is to bring healing to people, helping them find a healthy perspective and strengthening their relationships with self and others. As a native Californian, David continues to support his local community. He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and earned his master’s degree at Ryokan College.
Ramandeep Behniwal
Psych Nurse Practitioner
Ramandeep earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University. She has worked with diverse patient populations, such as adolescents and adults with severe mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. She has passion for incorporating warm, culturally sensitive and evidence-based approach to achieve therapeutic alliance.
Primary Mental Health at Magnolia
Pauline L’Herbette
Program Coordinator
As the mother of a three-year-old boy, she hopes that her experience in child rearing will complement her traditional school learning and strengthen her passion for helping young people and family systems.
Emmanuel Garcia
Primary Therapist
During his career, Emmanuel has conducted intensive individual and group counseling work utilizing Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. In addition, Emmanuel has also provided Solution-Focused and Narrative Therapy to students and families of the San Bernardino City Unified School District to enhance their understanding of student social, emotional, and physical well-being, including awareness of depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, and other mental health barriers.
As a psychotherapist, Emmanuel uses a neutral, strength-based, relational approach through DBT, ACT, CBT, Motivational Interviewing, and/or Narrative Therapy. His goal is to ensure clients feel empowered to create meaning in the life that they live, guiding adolescents, families, and adults to regulate their emotions, tolerate their distress, and process hardships. In his role as a Therapist at Ascend, he strives to maximize every client’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being through mindfulness, patience, accountability, hope, and connection.
During his leisure time, Emmanuel enjoys hiking in nature, traveling on road trips, backpacking in different countries, physical fitness, raising his Siberian husky, and embracing the present moment through laughter with loved ones.
Kathy Wolgast
Primary Therapist
As she works with her clients on radical acceptance, she utilizes a number of modalities, including CBT, DBT, Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Family Therapy, and Psychoanalytic Family Therapy. Her goal is to help teens and their families explore transgenerational trauma and find healing from its negative effects. \=
Kathlyn began her career working with children and adolescents but has experience working with clients of all ages. She has helped clients through various forms of trauma, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other related disorders. She has joined the Ascend team as a Primary Therapist to help our clients pursue their own healing in mind, body, and spirit.
Derrick Williams
Educator
After college, he worked in schools and homes as a behavior therapist, assisting students in overcoming their academic and social challenges. In this position, he was able to identify evident disparities within the school district. This furthered his intent to assist those who are not able to access the tools necessary for a sustainable life. It was during this time that Derrick decided to develop a nonprofit aimed to assist at-risk youth make better life choices.
Derrick went back to school and received a Master’s in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding. While at Ascend, Derrick is working on developing his nonprofit so he can continue his endeavor to improve the socioeconomic health of communities and reduce the recidivism rate of at-risk youth while supporting them in becoming functioning members of society.
Substance Use & Dual Diagnosis at Empress
Lukas Dziemidok
Primary Therapist
Lukas earned a Master’s Degree in Counseling with an emphasis on Marriage and Family Therapy from California State University, Northridge. His practice utilizes a variety of contemporary evidence-based depth therapies, such as postmodern, psychodynamic, humanistic, CBT, and DBT, to work with clients at their pace and explore their experience in order to equip them with effective tools for lasting change.
Ann Holm
Case Manager
Ann has a gentle yet direct approach. She realized that she likes working with adolescents while she was a health coach. She has done a significant amount of family work, especially in the realm of eating. Ann likes to work with adolescents as part of a family unit and teaching families how to empower themselves. Ann tries to work from a strength-based perspective, helping teens to find their voice based on their strengths, and empowering them to advocate for themselves. She meets clients where they are at and has a gentle, collaborative approach to empower teens to be able to help themselves.
One of her favorite things to see is when teens are finding a way to advocate for themselves within their family. She helps kids find their voice and become a full partner in family structures, ensuring families strive to take ownership of their own part in family dynamics.
Taylor Owens
Educator
Taylor hopes to foster a safe place for each individual kid to express themselves and rediscover their talents. She believes that if young people can find their determination to learn no one can stop them. Taylor strives to maintain a positive environment for these kids to grow while also upholding the structure they need to learn discipline. She hopes to continue to support and help kids and teens for many years to come.