What’s Up Wellness Team

What’s Up Wellness Checkups is made up of dedicated counselors, social workers and therapists seeking to provide mental health support and resources to their community.

  • MA, MFT

    I am grateful to be part of a program where youth’s voices are heard! As the Director of What’s Up Wellness, I’ve talked to too many teens who struggle silently. When I was in high school, I wished an adult would have asked me, on a deeper level, how I really was and offered support. I somehow made it through with the help of 80’s music (Prince), the art of eye-shadow, and the love of friends. As it goes, those challenging times led to my work as a psychotherapist. I’ve been serving community mental health since 1998, co-founded What’s Up Wellness in 2012, and have a Depth Psychotherapy private practice. To fill my cup I play music, perform with the Poetry Crashers, jump in the Yuba, wonder at wildlife, hike with my dog, cherish community/family, and tend my garden.

  • MSW, CYKF

    I’m the co-founder of What's Up Wellness, an adolescent social worker since 2005 in the public health sector and am co-founder of the Yuba Harm Reduction Collective. My work has focused on substance use treatment, teen clinic access, TBI and disability rights, sexual health, domestic violence, nutrition education and sexual abuse survivor treatment. Outside of What's Up Wellness, I coordinate the local HIV/HEP C testing clinic and work in local schools teaching sexual health, mindfulness tools and opioid overdose response. I enjoy my ten year old and performing in the local Poetry Crashers group. My teen years taught me to express who I really am. Then and today that usually means writing and dancing.

  • I am a Nevada County native and grew up going to the river and trying to find fun things to do as a bored teen in Nevada City-lots of hanging out at coffee shops downtown and staying up all night talking with my friends. I attended Mills College in Oakland and studied Sociology. After graduating, I moved to Prague, Czech Republic and taught English for a couple years while traveling around Europe and the USA. I started to miss home and moved back and have been working in the community primarily with teens ever since. I built a house with my family and live in Nevada City with my husband, young son and our two giant furry pups. In my spare time, I enjoy collecting vinyl and other vintage finds, making collages, being in nature of all kinds, going to see bands and traveling to the California coast, Mexico, Bali and other fun places.

  • LPCC, CCM, CRCC

    I am a licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC), Certified Case Manager (CCM) and Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRCC). I began working with teens in 2001 in wilderness leadership programs and I have worked with students in a variety of settings since then such as emotional growth/experiential education programs, high schools/boarding schools, and psychiatric/rehabilitation hospitals. I started working at Forest Charter (as a mental health counselor) in Spring of 2019. I enjoy working with students to help them to find their own path and the best version of themselves. I am most happy when surrounded by my family, good friends, dog, sunshine and wilderness. I enjoy camping/hiking/running in the mountains or playing on the beach. I love a good belly laugh, seeing live music and practicing yoga. I believe that everyone has a bright light shining deep in their soul. Sometimes it gets buried and just needs to be found again!

  • I live in Truckee, California with my partner, Brendan, my two sons, Dylan and Harlan and our dog, Ajsa. I am in my third year of a master’s program in Marriage, Family and Couples’ Counseling at the University of Reno, Nevada. Prior to entering the world of mental health care, I worked in land use and design, alternating between art and advocacy. I am passionate about making the world a better place and working towards equity and justice for all people.

  • Hi! I'm Rebecca Soliday (she/her/ella), a white cisgender therapist based in Sacramento, California. I have had a lifelong interest in connecting with other people and understanding their experiences, which motivated me to study and become bilingual in Spanish as well as pursuing a career as a therapist. I have been the clinical coordinator for What's Up Wellness since fall 2023. I provide clinical supervision for the training therapists in our program, as well as helping to facilitate team meetings and developing and providing training to the team on relevant topics. I love the work we do with What's Up Wellness because our team is so passionate and knowledgeable about supporting teens holistically! We get to help teens access mental health resources, as needed, but we've also helped bring awareness to teens needing extra academic support, glasses or contact lenses, and even housing or food needs outside of the school setting. This work is a nice counterpoint to my other role as a therapist in private practice in the Sacramento area, where I mostly work with Gen Z and Millennial adults (plus a few teens and kids). Apart from my work in mental health, I enjoy spending time outside -particularly in the mountains and the desert-, playing games with loved ones, and exploring creative hobbies.

  • I love connecting with teens as a mentor, wilderness trip leader, and activist. I have a masters in education, and am in my second year of a masters in science program for clinical mental health counseling. I'm a parent of a middle schooler, and a twenty year resident of Nevada County. I love the river, gardening, herbalism, writing, music, and dance. I spent high school and college immersed in theater, so I have a hidden talent of bursting into songs from musicals. For self care I like to remind myself to drink water, take walks, and to, "Spend time being in and staring at nature for at least a few minutes every day." Gazing at houseplants counts too!