Gretchen Blake, MA

 I always try to understand my clients in terms of their lifestyle and experiences and focus on helping them build self-compassion and understanding of how their unique experiences, loss, grief, and relationships have affected them. My primary goal is to help my clients live a more fulfilling life and I am committed to providing them a safe and accepting environment to help achieve that.

I incorporate a variety of treatment approaches, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and psychodynamic psychotherapeutic approaches. Depending on the individual, I also utilize strengths-based, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive approaches and work closely with them to determine meaningful and attainable goals of care and appropriate interventions based upon current best practices and evidenced-based standards of care. 

Gretchen has worked extensively assessing and treating anxiety, depression, mood disorders, substance use, and co-occurring disorders. She has helped clients cope with situational problems, parenting, school problems, postpartum issues, work stress, life changes, divorce, grief, loss, illness and end of life issues. 

Introspective, non-judgmental, compassionate. 

 English.

Gretchen Blake is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of direct clinical experience providing behavioral health care for diverse populations. She has worked with children, adolescents, adults, families, and groups in psychiatric and medical outpatient, inpatient, and crisis settings for a large health care organization. She has also worked in a palliative care program helping patients and their families cope with advanced illnesses.   

Gretchen has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from San Francisco State University, and a Master's of Social Work with a clinical concentration, from Sacramento State University. She completed a post-Master's clinical training fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. 

Gretchen is committed to improving the health and wellness of the community, has served on local non-profit community boards. 

In addition to her clinical practice, Gretchen is a faculty member at Sacramento State University, Division of Social Work, where she teaches Advanced Behavioral Health Practice and serves as a Field Liaison. 

 LICENSE: CALIFORNIA / #18602