ABOUT ME

Let’s admit we all have broken places.  It is part of the human condition. We all have situations we just can’t figure out on our own.  In my 20 years as a social worker, most of my clients start therapy saying some version of “I just don’t know what to do.”  As I work with clients, we cultivate the emotional safety necessary to examine where you are and where you need to go, as well as the courage to get there, step by step. 

You want to feel less anxious but don't know how.  You want to back down from the conflict in your relationship and have no idea what that looks like.  You want to move forward after infertility or pregnancy loss but can't even imagine the next step.  Let’s start by dispensing with the idea that any of us "should" know how to handle all the crossroads in our lives. Life is messy and gives us things to handle that exceed our experience all the time.  Together we can shed a kind light on the dark places. You can determine the pace and we can make sense of things and find the places where movement and change can happen.

I have a Bachelors in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie-Mellon University and got my Masters in Clinical Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh.  I am deeply informed by feminist theory and feel it is really important that therapy include the role of race, class and gender in my clients’ lives and how they impact our work together. I put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of language.  Using inaccurate language can obscure the truth of things and leave us confused. Using attuned and accurate language to name our feelings and experience can create those pivotal “aha” moments and be illuminating and liberating. The story we tell ourselves about ourselves can make all the difference.  I love the work of rewriting my clients’ stories with them and creating better endings than they imagined.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Grateful Heart Holistic Therapy Center
California Society for Clinical Social Work
National Association of Social Workers
Weaving Threads: Therapeutic Support for Birth Mothers in Adoption (formerly called "Amaryllis")

ADDITIONAL TRAINING:
MUDO Therapy for Highly Traumatized Clients Level 1










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