About M.J. Waldrip, Ph.D., M.A., LMHC
M.J. is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of New Mexico since June 2017. She brings over 12 years’ experience in her own depth work to her counseling practice. She earned her Masters of Arts in Counseling from Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico with a Certificate in Transformational Ecotherapy. She also has about 1,000 hours experience as a participant in psychodrama and incorporates psychodramatic elements as appropriate into the therapy in service of healing.
M.J.’s life purpose is to facilitate the healing of our relationship with Mother Earth through the healing of our relationships with ourselves and with each other. She loves working with adults, adolescents, couples, families and children to support a return to inner and outer balance and harmony. Working experientially as well as through traditional talk therapy, one goal is to support clients to develop a skills set for navigating difficult emotions and conflict in a healthy, respectful, compassionate, and productive manner.
She previously worked as a counselor at the Eating Disorders Treatment Center in Albuquerque and at Tierra Nueva Counseling Center for over a year, and loves to work with survivors of abuse, neglect, and relational trauma, as well as those struggling with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction. She spent a year in the Albuquerque Public Schools in the South Valley working with children ages 7-18 in school and office settings to resolve trauma and attention difficulties. She also enjoys working with folks who are interested in furthering their personal, professional, spiritual, and/or relationship development.
Before becoming a psychotherapist, M.J. earned her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida and spent about 20 years working as a scientist and engineer at government, academic and private laboratories. She pioneered the industrial applications of an electrochemical reduction of nitrogen reaction, including inventing a novel crystal growth technique and co-inventing a novel air-breathing battery chemistry along with several other applications important for industry and environmental nuclear waste remediation. She championed research and development of bulk energy storage for the purpose of improving the penetration of renewable energy sources onto the electrical utility grid at the national and international levels of government, academia, and industry.
While she found this approach to healing the relationship between humans and our environment through technology development both rewarding and frustrating, her soul relentlessly called her into a different form of service. M.J. loves to be and work in Nature, and finds that sacred ceremony and Nature are vastly more powerful facilitators of healing than she could ever be. She eagerly supports the creation of opportunities for her clients who are so inclined to develop this kind of relationship with Mother Earth. She lives in Albuquerque with her three precious, spoiled rotten dogs who deserve every bit of spoiling they can get in their short, beautiful, and highly impactful lives.
M.J. is licensed under her birth name, Karen Waldrip, New Mexico License Number CMH0191871.