Los Arboles

Brenda Perez, MA, AMFT

My name is Brenda Perez and I am a Mental Health Therapist at Monterey High School. I am a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor under the supervision of Tara Peterson,  LMFT #83244.  I am also trained in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and am a clinician at the Equine Healing Collaborative. 

I have been working with MPUSD since 2016. I first began as a Behavior Technician and then became a Family Services Specialist. After recently obtaining my master’s degree in Psychology this summer, I was promoted to the Mental Health Therapist position. 

I am dedicated and passionate about serving students in our community. I work with students grades 9-12 and I incorporate a variety of evidenced based treatment interventions and modalities to help meet the individuals needs as each individual is different. For example: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Client Centered Therapy, Strength Based Therapy and Mindfulness to name a few. I look forward to meeting you! 

Hello! My name is Andrea Diaz and I am a School Social Worker at MPUSD specifically working with middle school McKinney Vento and foster students at the three middle school sites, including Los Arboles Middle School, Seaside Middle School and Walter Colton Middle School. I was was raised in the small near-by town of Castroville, CA by two immigrant parents who moved to this country from Mexico in order to give my siblings and I the best opportunities possible to succeed. Helping others has been a passion of mine from a young age, which is why I decided to pursue a career in Social Work. After high school, I decided to go to CSU Fresno where I graduated with a bachelor’s in Social Work and a minor in Spanish. Shortly after, I decided to pursue my Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW), but I decided to move back home to continue pursing my MSW at CSU Monterey Bay because I always knew that I wanted to support people in my local communities. I am now extremely grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to support local middle school homeless and foster students/families in our community as it is a huge passion of mine!