Cover Story where they don’t have problems,” she said. “It’s very easy to pass over just regular people.” Today Compton has sessions with about five to 10 women per week in one of the back rooms of Deborah’s Palm. The topics she discusses with women run the gamut from depression to anxiety, past trauma, relationships, work and addiction. Per a policy suggested by Compton, Deborah’s Palm only takes into account the patient’s income, so that women can remain independent of a spouse if they choose to. Despite the financial pressures of offering counseling on a sliding scale (which ranges from $50 to $100 per hour), it was important to Compton to offer the program, who had faced steep rates in seeking psychotherapy for herself earlier in life. “We just had a will to do it,” she said.
Cathy Alger, center, works on a painting as fellow artists apply themselves to their own canvas and print projects during an open art studio session at Deborah’s Palm. (continued from previous page)
a month, the center also offers a Newcomer’s Coffee and Potluck event. When Valadao attended one, she met six or seven women from other countries and states — even one local woman new to the center. Volunteer Myrna Lantzsch led the conversation, talking about the activities available at Deborah’s Palm as well as her own experience in moving to Palo Alto from out of state. Valadao said that the women there, more or less, were all “looking for the same thing that I was.” “It’s always good to hear different accents,” she said, smiling. “You feel very much comfortable.” Since that first meeting, Valadao has continued to come to Deborah’s Palm, attending other newcomers’ meetings to share her experience. In addition to volunteering for larger events, she also participates in a walking group, which meets on Fridays to socialize and meander around town. Valadao credits Deborah’s Palm with helping her “find her way” and expanding her involvement and social circle in this new place. However, she pointed to other groups that the center organizes — meetings for women grieving or going through a divorce — that provide invaluable support to women in other difficult periods of life. “I believe those are things that women in general need very much and don’t find everywhere,” she said.
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arcia Davis-Cannon teaches a class at Deborah’s Palm called “Uncover Your Calling,” a 12-week course on making a career transition that delves deep
into the psychology of its students. fear; identify values, strengths and Davis-Cannon views identifying skills; and then take significant acwhat is holding someone back as tion. Davis-Cannon has taught this an integral first step in the jobcourse to both men and women search process. “We talk about what you hate to through Career Actions Minisdo, what self-limiting beliefs you try and from her own Mountain might have, what negative self- View office, where she also does talk you might have, what personal private coaching. However, since history you’re carrying with you, she began offering this course at Deborah’s Palm what losses you’ve in 2011 (where had that you might she also leads a need to grieve,” ‘This is really what the writing group), D a v i s - C a n n o n whole idea behind she has noticed said. “There are that participants often tears. People Deborah’s Palm is ... in the all-women go quite deep.” a place for women to sessions there Davis-Cannon, come and not feel like bond quickly. She a Mountain View resident, first had you’re the only one who reflected that the attractive, cozy the idea for this is going through this, and safe environcourse when she ment of Deborah’s was going through whatever it could be.’ a career transition – Jamileh Musa, community Palm encourages herself. Her chiloutreach coordinator, that connection. “I try to treat dren had gone off Deborah’s Palm students like they to college, and her have value, like mother and aunt had died. Though she had an MBA they matter, like they deserve to from The Wharton School, Uni- have dreams, and they find that versity of Pennsylvania, and about the other people in their lives don’t 20 years of corporate experience always treat them that way,” she under her belt, she was uncertain said. In addition to offering courses about what she wanted to do. She pored over job-search mate- like Davis-Cannon’s, Ritchey has rials but found only the occasional brought an array of other servic“nugget of gold” that was helpful. es to Deborah’s Palm to support When the Recession hit, she saw women in transition or suffering many people at a church group, from personal crises — struggles Career Actions Ministry, who that can be compounded by the were dissatisfied with their current pressure cooker of Silicon Valley, lines of work. She decided in 2009 where the fast speed of life is “palto pull together those nuggets into pable” and money can be a naga form that she could share with ging worry, she said. “Women (here) are expected others. The result was “Uncover Your to do it all: They’re expected to Calling,” a weekly course with have kids, (and) they’re expected two-hour meetings and extensive to work,” Ritchey said. “It’s just a homework. The course is split very competitive, intense environinto three, four-week modules in ment.” To meet the needs of more which Davis-Cannon asks her students to confront their shame and women, last September Deborah’s
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Palm launched an affordable/sliding scale program for counseling with the help of therapist Louise Compton. Previously, Deborah’s Palm had referred women to a few marriage and family therapists (MFTs) in the community. However, these counselors charge market rates, which can be as high as $125 an hour. “So many people that I’ve met would like to have counseling, but the biggest roadblock to that is usually finances,” said Compton, who was licensed as an MFT in April 2013. Compton became friends with Ritchey when they were both students seeking master’s degrees at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont. Before and after graduating in 2009, she was mainly working with low-income people suffering from severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. She worked for a year and a half at Momentum for Mental Health on California Avenue. As Ritchey set out to open Deborah’s Palm, Compton stayed in contact with her and eventually became more involved at the center, running a support group for women with depression and anxiety for a year. Once she received her license, she talked with Ritchey about offering on-site, one-on-one, sliding-scale counseling. Even before meeting Ritchey, Compton remembered asking herself what kind of people she wanted to work with. Though she found her work with low-income populations rewarding, she always felt drawn to helping “women like (her)self,” who can have “intense problems” bubbling underneath the surface. “They seem like they have ... everything going for them; they seem like they are in a position
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hen asked what sets Deborah’s Palm apart from other service providers in the area, Davis-Cannon said, “Well, the first thing is Katie. ... There’s a warmth and a love about Katie that just sets the tone for the whole place.” That view was echoed by a chorus of women, who spoke glowingly about Ritchey’s ability to listen, her gentleness, her protective nature and — most of all — her miraculous efforts in starting Deborah’s Palm. Ritchey traced her interest in social work back to her days at Jordan Middle School. Typing teacher Hugh Center, after whom the school later named its amphitheater, organized collections of toys, clothing and food leading up to the holidays. The students would then pile into a school bus with care packages and deliver them to farming communities in Gilroy, where families sometimes lived in corrugated metal shelters and children worked alongside their parents. “It made such an impression on me,” Ritchey said. “It was the first time I thought, ‘There’s needs out here, just a few miles from my house.’” As Ritchey grew up, studied biology in college, worked in the pharmaceutical industry and raised her family in Portola Valley and Palo Alto, she always kept her hand in charity work. As a stay-at-home mom, she organized food drives and fundraisers. When her children were in elementary school, she started a program where students would learn about nonprofits and then take donations and meet the people those organizations were serving. Then she experienced what she called “a collusion ... of really difficult life events,” which pushed her to dedicate herself to human services and, particularly, to working with women. Her mother suffered a stroke in 1999, and Ritchey took care of her for four years as her health declined. She died in 2003. During that time she was