La Ventana Staff

Dr. Christine Pappas is the Clinical Director at La Ventana Eating Disorder Programs in our San Francisco office. Dr. Pappas earned her Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology in 2003 and her Doctorate Degree in Clinical Psychology in 2005. She has over ten years experience in providing treatment for diverse populations utilizing a multidisciplinary theoretical lens. Her work includes counseling individuals, families, and couples recovering from drug and alcohol addictions, eating disorders, trauma, mood disorders, and life style transitions. She has worked with children, adolescents, and adults in both inpatient and outpatient settings, as well as group homes, pubic schools, and juvenile hall. She has a private practice in San Francisco treating people in recovery from Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder, and Obesity, as well as various mood disorders and abuse. Dr. Pappas also has experience working in partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs (New Dawn Recovery), she works in conjunction with Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders in San Francisco, and has over six years experience working at Recovery Systems in Mill Valley. To broaden her scope of practice, Dr. Pappas is an Adjunct Professor at Argosy University in the Bay Area, where she teaches graduate level courses. Dr. Pappas possesses the passion to help support those in recovery and can relate to the profound grief that addiction may cause. For the past thirty years she has witnessed a loved one suffer from alcohol and drug addiction, as well as Anorexia and Bulimia. Dr. Pappas herself has learned to live with an autoimmune disease, culminating in the gift of developing a healthier relationship with food and her body. Dr. Pappas’s philosophy is that “food is medicine that refuels our body and mind in a balanced and healing manner”. With her extensive theoretical background, Dr. Pappas utilizes a family system and psychodynamic therapeutic modality while integrating cognitive behavioral, narrative, and experiential therapies in her practice. Given the psychological and physiological complexities of eating disorders, Dr. Pappas incorporates a comprehensive treatment team approach and feels that community connection and awareness is vital to a successful recovery.

Dr. Mark Schiller is a psychiatrist a San Francisco and Marin County psychiatrist and is Medical Director of the Mind Therapy Clinic. Dr. Schiller has worked in addiction psychiatry throughout his professional life. In addition, his research and clinical practice has focused on the use of innovative technology for the objective selection of psychiatric medication. He is a graduate of The University of Chicago medical school and the Yale University psychiatric residency program. He completed a research fellowship at UCSF, where he was subsequently Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry.

Sheira Kahn, M.A., MFT, Licensed Professional.. Sheira Kahn, M.A., MFT, Licensed Professional. Treating eating disorders since 1999, Sheira joined the team at La Ventana, SF in January, 2010. As Acting Director of the Marin Eating Disorders Department at Ohlhoff Recovery Programs, she designed and conducted an Intensive Outpatient Program and co-authored and taught a curriculum on eating disorders and substance abuse for the students, staff and parents of Mill Valley Middle School. Sheira earned her B.A. in Religious Studies from UC Berkeley, and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology (concentrating in Expressive Arts Therapy) from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Currently in private practice, she teaches seminars on eating disorders to clinicians, clients and students at schools, treatment centers, and doctors’ offices. In another discipline, she learned an effective method for disengaging from the inner critic, which she adapted for people with eating issues. Studying attachment with Dr. Sue Johnson, she focuses treatment on healing attachments wounds as part of recovery from an eating disorder. Sheira is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, where she recently published an article on effective eating disorder treatment, and founder of www.CEUcinema.com, a website of continuing education classes based on movies.

Sabine Haake M.A., R.D. Sabine Haake M.A., R.D. has a B.S. in Nutritional Science and Clinical Dietetics with advanced specialty training in Eating Disorders from U.C. Berkeley. She worked for 18 years in companies like CPMC, Kaiser, and New Dawn ED Recovery Center with individuals and groups to facilitate normalized eating and to manage stressors during the recovery process in a non-judgmental manner. She has successfully implemented the modified Maudsley method for teenage clients and their families and publicly speaks to local school communities about a non dieting approach to prevent childhood obesity and body image crisis in our society. She is a member of the American Dietetics Association.

Lynne Martin, BASc, RD. Lynne is a registered dietitian with over ten years experience in the field of eating disorders. She earned her BASc in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and got her first experience working with eating disorders at the world renowned Toronto General Hospital Eating Disorders Program. This program emphasized a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that Lynne continues to utilize in both individual and group settings. Lynne was a founding member at New Dawn Eating Disorder Program and played an active role in the planning and development of the nutritional component. Lynne is a member of the American Dietetic Association, is licensed by the commission of Dietetic Registration and maintains a private practice in Corte Madera, CA.

Summer Nipomnick, M.A., Psychological Assistant. Summer received her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from John F. Kennedy University in 2003. She went on to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Fielding Graduate University where she is currently a PhD candidate. Her research focuses on psychological sense of control and recovery from Anorexia Nervosa. Summer completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. Recently, Summer worked at New Dawn Eating Disorders Recovery Center in their intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization and residential treatment programs. She has worked as a therapist with the Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders in San Francisco, CA where she helped develop and implement a low-fee outpatient therapy clinic for adults and adolescents with eating disorders. In addition, Summer has co-led eating disorder prevention groups in the Marin County schools. Summer’s experience includes individual, couples, family and group psychotherapy with pediatric, adolescent and adult inpatients and outpatients. She has extensive training in the eating disorder field as well as crisis intervention, and works with patients who have co-morbid medical and psychiatric conditions. Summer is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders and the American Psychological Association.

Shrein Bahrami, M.A., MFTI., Shrein joins La Ventana with a range of experiences working with adults and children in a variety of diverse therapeutic settings. Most recently, Shrein provided school-based therapy to students dealing with anxiety, grief and loss, trauma, ADHD, and physical and sexual abuse. For over five years, Shrein has also worked in research, coordinating transfusion and health related studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. As a very close friend to someone working through their battle with anorexia, she has a strong desire to help those seeking treatment overcome their eating disorder and develop success long-term recovery. She understands firsthand the impact an eating disorder has on not only the client, but on their family and friends as well. In addition to her role as Lead Therapist at La Ventana, Shrein provides individual, couple and family therapy in her San Francisco private practice office using an integrative therapeutic approach including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Systems, Psychodynamic and Attachment Theory. Shrein received her Master's degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of San Francisco and earned her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and The Association of Family Therapists of Northern California.

Adriana Marchione, MA, REAT, RSMT, CHT, has a well-established arts and healing practice in San Francisco where she works with individuals and groups. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Studio Art, a Masters in Psychology, is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist, a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist and a Clinical Hypnotherapist. Adriana specializes in addiction/recovery, and has developed a specific body of work offering creative healing opportunities for people in recovery from all forms of addiction, eating disorders and co-dependency. Her areas of interest in her work include mindfulness practices, stress reduction, spiritual inquiry, women's issues and creative coaching. For over a decade, Adriana has presented expressive arts workshops and classes at a variety of institutions and organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including Sonoma State University, National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Mandana Community Recovery Center, Epiphany Center for Women and Children, and Marin Outpatient Services. Adriana is faculty member of the Tamalpa Institute, an internationally renowned training center for movement-based expressive arts therapy in Marin County, California. She actively researches both experientially and didactically the ways that the arts and a body-based orientation can foster healthy living in individuals and communities.

Ashley Pooley, Outreach Coordinator. Ashley is originally from Massachusetts and has been living in San Francisco for the past year. She studied at the University of New Hampshire in Durham NH and at Lesley University in Cambridge MA, focusing on Counseling Psychology and Studio Art. Ashley struggled with ED for 11 years and was in intensive treatment prior to her recovery. She brings her personal history and compassion to help others suffering with ED to La Ventana in a community outreach capacity. Her life journey has given her a compassion for others struggling and made her want to help those who are recovering from ED. She brings enthusiasm to the field of recovery and shares her excitement about this new position and can't wait to spread the word about La Ventana.

Steve Zamarripa, CEO. Steve opened La Ventana as a personal journey to help others with eating disorders.  His mother was affected by the disease and left this world too young from complications of living years with an eating disorder. Steve wanted to open a treatment center that was affordable with excellent treatment and long term care for recovery. He has found in La Ventana a way to give back to the world and help others live a long and healthy life. Steve was born and raised in Southern California and earned his BA from USC, and his MBA from Columbia University.