About Kate Duren

Kate Duren has been working as a counselor to new moms and their children for more than 20 years. The children of two therapists, and trained as a social worker, Kate was uniquely qualified to take on the variety of roles she has played in support of new moms. Since 1997, Kate has run a support group for new moms at The Mother and Baby Source, a center for the retail goods and support for new moms and their babies. For eight years before that she worked as a perinatal coordinator for Planned Parenthood, counseling expectant moms on the health, nutrition and psychosocial challenges and resources they would have to understand well in order to bear and raise healthy children.

Kate is a good listener, an excellent counselor, and an important resource. She has counseled new moms on post-partum depression, feeding issues, sleep issues and disturbances, sibling concerns, children with special needs, the support of peers and parents, parenting books, working mom concerns, and the relationship with a new mom’s partner.

Kate recognizes the special challenges facing new moms and their families. As a mother of three, Kate has spent hundreds of hours reading about new mom stress and depression, about a baby’s many stages of development, and about ways that a mom can bond with her baby. She brings this knowledge and lived experience, and her more than 20 years of work as a counselor, to every conversation with every client. Every new mom needs a support system, and Kate stands ready to be a part of yours!

Other qualifications:

Currently in Davis:

Communications Director and Board Member, The Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome Foundation
Coordinator, The New Parent Support Group at Mother and Baby Source
Co-author of the 2013 book of poems and essays titled Where’s Jukie?

Previous Experience:

Speaker, “Raising Children with Special Needs,” Meeting of Yolo SKIES: Special Kids in Educational Settings
Davis Parent Nursery School Board Member and Pre-K Representative
Family Care Worker for Head Start, suburban Illinois
Counselor for special needs children, Chicago, Illinois
Counselor for special needs children, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Counselor for adults with special needs, suburban Chicago

Bio from the back of Kate’s new book, Where’s Jukie?:

Kate Duren is an essayist, blogger, and a counselor and consultant for new parents. The Director of Media Relations for the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Foundation, Kate works to support parents, coordinate communication and collaboration among parents of children with Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome, and raises money for medical research. Author of the blog Thriving in Holland (at kateduren.blogspot.com), Kate also runs “Help for New Moms,” a new mom consultancy at helpfornewmoms.com. Originally from Chicago, Kate lives in Davis, California with her husband, Andy, and with their three children, Geneva, Jukie, and Truman. Find Kate online at twitter.com/kateduren.