ContactMy name is Katarina Stenstedt, and I live in the Montclair district of Oakland, California. There are several ways to get in touch with me:
About this siteThis site is powered by WordPress, plus many other bits and pieces. For more about this site and how I created it, see Site credits. My housemates Star ignoring the paparazzi I live with my husband Gene (Our Oakland) and our cats, Star and Rosie. Of the cats, I list Star first because she’s the elder, but if it were up to her she might choose to be listed second, or not at all, because she’s the recluse of the two. According to dictionary.com, a perfectly serviceable synonym for “recluse” is “troglodyte.” (This is yet another reason to go out and buy yourself a real dictionary.) Star is not a prehistoric cave dweller—except on very cold nights, when she crawls under the covers with us.
Rosie is a small cat, and for reasons we cannot fathom she has no whiskers. She had them when we got her; she doesn’t have them now. Also, she was born missing a few toes. But what she lacks in bulk and toes and whiskers, she makes up for in chutzpah. She’s our extravert. This photo shows Rosie resting up. You have to get a lot of sleep to be as brazen as this kitty can be. But enough about the cats already. |
My backgroundSpiritual directionI’ve been a spiritual director since 2002, and a spiritual-direction supervisor since 2008. I completed the Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction (DASD) program at San Francisco Theological Seminary in 2004, then worked on staff during the 2005, 2006, and 2012 January DASD intensives. I completed Together in the Mystery, the DASD’s supervisor-training program, in 2009. I currently work with individual directees and supervisees in person, over the phone, and using Skype. I also work as a group spiritual director for New College Berkeley. Writing and editingI’ve been a professional writer and editor for almost twenty years. From 2005–2011, I worked as a technical writer at Google. For more details, view my LinkedIn profile. I love to write, as is probably obvious. I’m writing my first novel, a sci-fi story about the human soul. MusicUntil I was in my mid-twenties, I didn’t believe that I had a listenable singing voice. Then I discovered that not only can I sing just fine, but I’m also able to write and perform my own songs, and people actually want to hear them. Go figure! ChurchI’ve attended and been part of many churches since I became a Christian in 1985: Vineyard, Lutheran, Episcopal, UCC, and of course my favorite, the church of G.O.D. (the Great Outdoors). Gene and I currently attend College Avenue Presbyterian Church in Oakland. The rest, in brief…I was born in Linköping, Sweden, in 1966 and lived in California, Belgium, and Iran while I was growing up. I went to high school in Lafayette, California, and then attended Stanford, from which I have a B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science. I married Gene Anderson (Cal grad!) in June of 2000 and have lived in Oakland for 13 years. This is my longest stay anywhere. I love it. |
