A native of the Philippines, she came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar and received her doctorate from the University of Kansas. She trained at the Irving Schwartz Institute for Children of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center and the Children's Rehabilitation Unit of the University of Kansas Medical Center. After serving as Coordinator of the Children's Outpatient Service at Topeka State Hospital from 1975 to 1979, she joined the staff of the Menninger Clinic. There she provided diagnostic services, individual and group therapy, hospital treatment, and consultation to the Topeka Public School System and local day care centers.