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Welcome

I am not currently taking new clients but I am glad you have found my webpage and that you are perhaps curious about psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is its own unique journey for every person. Some come to therapy to work through family of origin issues and/or relationship issues. Others are looking to work through either chronic or acute trauma. Some are looking for tools to cope with anxiety and depression. Others are wanting to get to know themselves in a deeper way. For some, they are learning that the tools they have used in the past (avoidance, over working, addictions, etc.) are no longer working for them. For some, it may be all of the above!

I approach the work I do with a spirit of generosity, compassion, and curiosity. We human beings are amazingly complex and it is only through compassion and curiosity that the layers of our own unique humanness can unfold.

Though, I am not taking new clients, I hope I can be of some service in helping you find a therapist. Check out my resource page for this.

My Journey

My background is in depth psychology, which is the psychology of the unconscious and includes the following theoretical orientations: psychoanalytic; Jungian; object relations; and self-psychology. I also have a training background in Family Systems Therapy and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Several years ago, wanting to be able to provide clients with practical tools, I incorporated Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into my work. ACT combines cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques for working with difficult thoughts and emotions.

Evenutally, I began recognizing that many clients seeking therapy with me had some level of trauma whether relationship/developmental based or trauma due to life-threatening events. In order to be of better service to these clients, I began to study and incorporate trauma informed perspectives including the neurobiology of trauma. In my work in depth psychology, I had always thought of the unconscious as residing in the mind but I came to understand that trauma, both chronic and acute, is locked in unconscious ways in the body. To help clients address this, I trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and somatic methods which work to process trauma through the body.

My clients often teach me what I need to learn next. I had already been reading about the success of psychedelic psychotherapy trials for treating PTSD, depression, and anxiety. And then my clients began revealing to me that they were having their own psilocybin experiences/or microdosing. I decided that I needed to learn more about psychelic psychotherapy and recently completed a certificate program. What I learned helps me help my clients process and integrate experiences they have had while using psychedelics.

Over the last 20 years in this field, in my travels, and in different clinical settings across the country, one thing I have learned is that human beings are more similar than we are different. We all have: hopes and dreams; regrets and failures; fears and anxieties; difficult and rewarding relationships. Most of us are wounded in some way, even psychotherapists. I see myself as Carl Jung saw himself, as a wounded healer. It is out of my own woundedness that I can begin to help others.

• PhD – Clinical Psychology from a Depth Perspective – Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpenteria, CA
• APA Accredited Predoctoral Internship – The Danielsen Institute at Boston University – Boston, MA
• Advanced Training Fellowship – The Danielsen Institute at Boston University – Boston, MA
• APPIC Accredited Post Doctoral Fellowship – Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) – Cal Poly Humboldt – Arcata, CA
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy – Levels 1 & 2
• Certificate (in process) in Psychedelic Psychotherapy – Integrative Psychiatry Institute, Boulder, CO

Your Journey

It takes a single step to begin. A first step might be to ask family, friends, and professionals for the names of therapists, or searching out names on the internet. A next step might be to make a call. The journey unfolds from there. Your journey is unique to you and no one can really tell you what your journey is, or will be. Journeys unfold. No two journeys are alike.

It is normal to be a little hesitant at first. There is a part of you that might really want therapy and another part of you that feels apprehensive about it or resistant to it. That is okay, you can still take a step toward exploring what therapy is and if it might be helpful to you. You don’t need to be alone in your struggle or on your healing journey. A therapist can help, provide support, and hold space for you as your journey toward healing and wholeness unfolds.