About Me

My private practice was established in 1988. From the beginning clients have included individuals, couples, families, and therapy groups. Other work has involved closely assisting college students through a University’s Alcohol Program and college counseling.

Deciding to seek therapy is a courageous decision to make and may be accompanied by some temporary anxiety and stress. This is normal. Establishing a therapeutic relationship and assisting a client in assessing their primary concerns are among the first goals in therapy.  Assessment instruments may be  administered to new clients in an effort to further examine personality characteristics and/or psychological issues. Together with the client(s), treatment plans are established. Throughout the course of therapy, the client’s opinions related to therapeutic effectiveness are sought.  Such feedback is integrated into the on-going treatment process.

My beliefs and values about the therapeutic process include the following:

• Various therapeutic interventions and strategies may achieve the same result. In other words, there is almost always more than one way to do anything.
• All people are capable of change. The best predictor of change is the client’s belief that he or she is capable of change.
• Clients need to be considered in the context of their social system(s) eg. Family, peer support network, culture, gender etc.
• People have a combination of resiliency or strengths as well as problems or pain. Both need to be examined in therapy.
• Issues related to incomplete attachment in childhood as well as the current developmental stage of one’s life cycle need to be considered during therapy.
• Reality is the meaning(s) each of us gives to life as we experience it. Therefore, each person’s reality may differ.
• Therapy sometimes creates dissonance or confusion. Through this process, the client may be challenged to restructure their thoughts, beliefs, feelings and defenses.
• Often people are affected by other members of the systems to which they belong, be those systems families, a work setting, a group etc.