Meet Our Behavioral Health Providers
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Natasha McGowan
Licensed Mental Health Provider
Education: MS in Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA.
Area Of Specialty: Significant experience and training in work with youth and children, training in attachment work with non-traditional and non-bio families, training in work with those with developmental disabilities.
Areas of Interest: Trauma informed work with youth, families and couples. Attachment-based and trauma informed parenting and relationships. The strengthening of biological, non-traditional and non-biological parenting attachments. ADHD and Trauma work, work with developmental disabilities.
I am grateful to have begun serving at Lummi in December of 2014. The Lummi community is amazing. Before Lummi Behavioral Health, I served at Bethany Christian Services in Bellingham being trained in attachment and adoption-related therapy. Prior to this I worked with a small organization called Family Focus in the Seattle area, working with children and young adults with developmental disabilities. Prior to my last lot of education, I worked and trained in a therapeutic group home with teens and tweens.
Currently, I provide services to individual youth and families and also to parents, couples and individual adults. My focus is the participant’s strengths and resiliencies and their practiced skills that can be used and adapted to face new or existing challenges. I am a strong believer in the telling of story, of seeing one’s strengths and resiliencies in one’s story and of building on strength that already exists.
Originally from England, UK. My family is English and has been in England for generations. They are all a little weird😉 and also wonderful. I unintentionally immigrated to the US in 1989 with my family, though my extended family remains at home and so much connection with home was kept. One of the key things outside of my immediate family that has kept me here in the US has been the presence and influence of indigenous communities, because it is here that I am reminded the most of groundedness and health, especially in terms of the history and importance of the land, community, care for other and connection. I have a passion for these things, and also for a few others such as a zoo of pets😊, travel, the study of history and the telling and creating of story in general. I love to walk, use google maps to travel places when I can’t do it in person, and to take road trips to see the land.
Natasha McGowan
Mental Health Provider
Rachel Colston
Associate Level Licensed Mental Health Provider
Education: BS in Psychology w minor in Global Health, University of Washington; MS in Clinical Psychology, University of West Alabama
Area of Specialty/Interest: LGBTQIA+ communities, trauma, neurodiversity, disability justice, liberation psychology, social supports/community building, life transitions
I am a newer member of the Lummi Behavioral Health team starting in January of 2023. Before being offered the opportunity of serving the Lummi community, I interned in community mental health at Sea Mar in Bellingham, then worked at a group private practice for one year.
Currently, I support others through individual and group counseling using a trauma-informed lens. I am passionate about creating and holding space for fellow members of the LGBTQIA+ communities and those of us that have experienced generational and historical trauma to be a support in the healing journey. I am a strong advocate for collective and community healing, so I encourage people who work with me to tap into resources outside of individual counseling including community as well as familial and personal practices.
Originally, my family was a military family living across the continental United States until we retired in the PNW in 2006. My family includes my parents, four brothers, one sister and huge extended family on the east coast. I like to watch horror movies and video game walkthroughs, do anything crafty with my hands, and have recently been learning to cook more complicated foods.
Rachel Colston
Mental Health Provider
Christina Choi-Pearce
Areas of Interest: Grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, racial trauma, and support through life transitions/changes.
Languages: English
I am newer to the Lummi Behavioral Team, having joined the team in August 2023. I completed my graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Before coming to the world of counseling, I worked in Higher Education supporting college students in their academic journeys. I have worked in several capacities both at the university and the community college; supporting students holistically as a Resident Director and supporting academically at-risk students through advocating and one-on-one coaching. I have always had a passion for mental health support and am excited to be at Lummi Behavioral Health.
Before joining the Lummi Behavioral Health team, I worked as an intern therapist for Accent Counseling, where I was able to provide counseling and support to Asian-American clients, as well as other marginalized clients. I have always been passionate about bringing more representation to spaces that have traditionally lacked, such as the counseling field. As an Asian-American woman myself, I understand what it feels like to have my identities pushed away or not acknowledged as having a direct impact on my life experiences. My main goal is to create a space for people to be able to show up as they are and to keep their story at the center of my work. I aim to be collaborative, trauma-informed, culturally humble, and multimodal in my work.
I have moved around a lot in her life and calls many places home, but when I moved to Bellingham in 2012, I fell in love and decided to call this place my permanent home. I come from a proud Korean immigrant family, and I hold cultural values and traditions close. In my free time, I enjoy exploring the city’s food and coffee scene with my husband, my dog, and whatever my current read is.
Christina Choi-Pearce