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After working for many years as a volunteer with 4-H and the public schools, Claudia Alonzo
returned to school at age 37 and completed her undergraduate degree. She graduated from the University of California,
at Santa Cruz with a major in Psychology, with an equal emphasis in Photography. Her combined Senior Thesis was awarded Honors.
Claudia continued on to graduate school, completing her Master's Degree in Family Therapy at the American Academy of Family Studies, now known as J.F.K. University. Her Senior Thesis titled, " Interviewing Children and Adolescents in Cases of Suspected Sexual Abuse" was awarded Honors. For two years, Claudia served a Double Internship at the Parent's Center in Santa Cruz,CA working both with sexual abuse survivors and those convicted of sexual crimes against children. At that internship she counseled couples, individuals, families and groups. She created and facilitated therapy groups for child and adolescent sexual abuse survivors. Claudia also was a co-therapist for Adult Sex Offender Treatment groups, facilitator for the "Parents United" group, and was a Hot Line on-call therapist. From 1986-88 Claudia provided counseling for the Teen-Aged Mother Program TAM at Santa Cruz High School. In that position, she taught parent education, safe sex information, assertiveness, communication skills, child abuse prevention, crisis intervention, etc. The program provided individual and group counseling at the high school with 12-17 year old pregnant girls/mothers. In 1988 Claudia Alonzo began work at Pacific Treatment Associates in Santa Cruz, CA. where she continued for 14 years. During this time Claudia was licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California. Pacific Treatment Associates is a non-profit, private practice agency that provided treatment programs for perpetrators of sexual abuse and domestic violence. At this agency, Claudia Alonzo provided individual, couples, and group therapy. In addition, her duties included leading Behavior Modification groups, writing program materials, teaching workshops, working with Probation, court testimony, etc. In 2000 Claudia Alonzo was granted an emergency teaching credential by the state of California and taught U.S. History and World Issues for the last quarter of the school year at Anzar High School in San Juan Bautista, CA. From 2000-2003 Claudia was co-owner and in private practice at the Therapy Center in Santa Cruz, CA. Areas of specialization included: child advocacy, families in crisis, acting-out teenagers, parent/child problems, mediation and divorce, supervised visitations, therapeutic reunification, child and adult abuse survivors, parent education, domestic violence education and prevention, gang intervention, effective communication, and healthy conflict resolution. In 2003 Claudia Alonzo was hired to become the Lead Therapist for the Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment Program at Cedar Springs Hospital in Colorado Springs, CO. While at Cedar Springs she delivered direct client services to +/- 40 incarcerated juvenile male sex offenders in individual, group, and family therapy. She revised and created program materials, provided staff training and education, led a group of four therapists, managed crisis situations on the locked ward, worked closely with Probation and represented the Hospital in court cases in Colorado and Arkansas. Due to reasons of health, Claudia Alonzo went on a leave of absence from therapy work. In 2007, with renewed vigor she resumed taking classes at the Colorado School For Family Therapy and completed the process of LMFT licensure here in Colorado. Completing classes in Colorado Jurisprudence, Certification as a Child and Family Investigator CFI and continuing courses in Sand Tray; Claudia Alonzo started the process of creating the Cripple Creek Counseling Center. The Cripple Creek Counseling Center opened in the new Cripple Creek Medical Center in February of 2008 in the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Since 2008, Claudia Alonzo has provided Mental Health and counseling
services for the Cripple Creek Victor School Based Health Center. She currently provides services through the SBHC to children
and their families in the Cripple Creek Victor School District. The SBHC is funded through a variety of health grants and
provides physical, dental and mental health services to the children of the community.
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