Jenna Eisenberg, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Member, American Association of Diabetes Educators

    Jenna Eisenberg is a California and Colorado Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), and an associate member of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.  Jenna, a type 1 diabetic herself since she was 13 months old, has a type 1 diabetic mother, 2 type 1 diabetic aunts, a grandfather who died from complications of type 1 diabetes, a great grandfather who had his leg amputated as a result of complications of type 1 diabetes and several other family members who have type 2 diabetes.  Needless to say, Jenna has lived her entire life with this disease, and has had to personally deal with both the physical and emotional issues that she now helps other diabetics cope with.

     Ms. Eisenberg started her work with diabetes in high school as a volunteer with newly diagnosed diabetics, she continued into college and beyond.  During her years at the University of Texas at Austin, she garnered an interest in HIV/AIDS, and began volunteering with several AIDS organizations during and after graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Communication, majoring in Journalism/Media studies and minoring in Business.  During college, Jenna studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain and backpacked through Europe.  This was one of the first experiences she and her parents had dealing with “letting go” of their child and trusting her to live in another country and fully manage her diabetes.
     Jenna then moved to San Francisco, where she continued her work with HIV/AIDS and diabetes. After a year in San Francisco, Ms. Eisenberg joined the United States Peace Corps and served two years in Kingston, Jamaica where she volunteered as an At Risk Urban Youth Educator.  Her main role in Jamaica was at the Centre for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and Services (CHARES) at the University of the West Indies Hospital.  There, Jenna was exposed to many aspects of the counseling field (individual, crisis and group sessions), she provided safe sex psycho-education to various groups and developed activities for the HIV/AIDS community.  It was her experience in the Peace Corps that led Jenna to realize her desire to continue to help others; especially those with chronic illness.

     After Jenna successfully completed her two years in the Peace Corps, she returned to California where she began graduate school at San Francisco State University.  In addition to her graduate school curriculum, Jenna also took Sexual Attitude Restructuring classes at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Human Sexuality, where she studied treatment for erectile dysfunction and other sexual issues related to chronic illness.  In 2004, Ms. Eisenberg graduated with honors with a Masters of Science, concentration Marriage and Family Therapy.  To meet her graduate school requirements, Jenna, who is fluent in Spanish, worked with two non-profit agencies, and served children, adults and families in low income communities.  Not only did she provide them counseling, but she also assisted several of these families with housing, employment and financial stability issues.  Furthermore, many of these families were monolingual Spanish speaking, and Jenna provided counseling services to them in Spanish only. She also participated in various trainings and clinical and group supervision.

     Following graduate school, Jenna once again took a trip backpacking by herself through much of Central and South America; there, she learned much