“During my years in the field, I have developed different approaches to helping my clients, but the basis for all my work is an appreciation of the unique challenges and strengths of each person, which are understood through a psychodynamic lens.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
My first career was as a visual artist, but a personal crisis led me to seek therapy (something foreign to the midwestern culture I grew up in). Psychotherapy truly changed my life! My wonderful therapist got me through a crisis and inspired me to want to help people as I had been helped. I went back to school to get a master’s in social work and a PhD, all while working in a New York City social services agency and helping people recover from mental illness. I have also had a private practice throughout the years and worked with a variety of people and issues.
What should someone know about working with you?
During my years in the field, I have developed different approaches to helping my clients, but the basis for all my work is an appreciation of the unique challenges and strengths of each person, which are understood through a psychodynamic lens. This means that we work to understand how life experience and even the life experience of parents and grandparents may contribute to both productive and less productive habits of coping. Progress is measured according to the client's own goals.
Have you done any research-based work that you found particularly exciting? How does it inform your practice today?
My doctoral dissertation explored treatments that are conducted in communities. It made me aware of the importance of each person as an individual in a network of people. Family, social, and religious influences support and challenge us.
“This means that we work to understand how life experience and even the life experience of parents and grandparents may contribute to both productive and less productive habits of coping.”