Please join us in celebrating Dr. Yvonne Owen as she retires from serving as a beloved Cascadia Training presenter for almost 30 years!
Now a well-deserved Professor Emerita at Seattle University, Yvonne became a Professor at Seattle University’s prestigious Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s program in 1980. During her tenure, she developed and taught graduate-level curricula courses on clinical supervision, diagnostics, and assessments – while continuously adapting her teaching to keep up with the many versions of the DSM (DSM-lll, DSM-lll-R, DSM-lV, DSM-lV TR, and finally, the DSM 5!).
A well-respected and sought-after clinical supervisor herself, Yvonne supervised and mentored hundreds of people and treated clients in her thriving private practice as a clinical psychologist for several decades. Yvonne also developed and led consultation groups for recent graduates and early professionals.
Well-known for her inviting, engaging, and humorous style, Yvonne’s impact as one of our most popular presenters is truly remarkable. Her stellar reputation as a dynamic presenter who incorporates practical demonstrations and useful practice with real-world supervision situations in her in-person workshops means they are always in high demand (even early on in the pandemic!).
In addition to her workshops on clinical supervision, Yvonne is an expert on all things of the ever-evolving and complex DSM! She developed and presented workshops on diagnosing using the DSM, adapting her workshops to each new edition. In preparation for the release of the DSM 5, Yvonne gave presentations on the expected changes in the new edition. Once the DSM 5 was released, she taught workshops on the complexities of diagnosing according to the significantly updated edition. Yvonne’s many workshops over the past two decades have left a lasting positive change in the mental health and social work communities in the Greater Seattle area and beyond!
As a testament to her enduring popularity and influence as a presenter, her final Cascadia workshop, “Become an Approved Clinical Supervisor Training Two-Day Series,” on June 13th and June 14th, has been sold out for months, with many on the waitlist. This high demand and anticipation for her workshops highlight the significant void her retirement will leave at Cascadia and in our community.
While many of our workshops moved to Zoom in March 2020 due to the pandemic, Yvonne was the first presenter to return to in-person workshops in our Shoreline classroom once restrictions were lifted in early 2021. We had to bring her back due to the countless overwhelming pleas of our attendees to bring her engaging and innovative clinical supervision workshops back in person. Many have eagerly awaited a chance to learn from her, with dozens of people on waitlists for each of her workshops hoping to secure a coveted spot.
The reach of Yvonne’s incredible passion and dedication to teaching clinicians how to be effective, engaging, and ethical clinical supervisors has had ripple effects far beyond the people who have taken her workshops. As we all know, successful clinical supervisors mentor, nurture, support, and guide mental health and social work professionals throughout their early careers.
Yvonne’s unique approach to teaching effective and engaging supervision lays a significant foundation for thriving in mental health and social work careers. These clinicians go on to help hundreds of clients through therapy and social support. It’s not hyperbole to say that Yvonne’s decades of teaching and service have positively impacted thousands and thousands of people throughout her career as a professor, clinician, mentor, and professor.
We are deeply grateful to Dr. Yvonne Owen for her decades of service as a dedicated, passionate, engaging, and beloved Cascadia presenter. While we will truly miss her and her workshops, we send her our heartfelt love, appreciation, and well-wishes on her well-deserved retirement. We hope she enjoys retirement as much as we have enjoyed working with her, and we want her to know how much she is valued and appreciated.
We invite you to share your experiences and wish Dr. Yvonne Owen a happy retirement by signing Yvonne’s Happy Retirement virtual card here, in the comments below, or by emailing [email protected]. Let’s celebrate her remarkable career together!
Congrats again, Yvonne! We’ll miss you tremendously.
