Services
- Individual
- Couples
- Family
- Adolescent/Teen
- Group
About My Clients
I work with adolescents, adults, couples, families and groups to develop skills that make life better, such as how to stay in the moment and be OK regardless of how hard it may be, how to know what you feel and listen to yourself, how to take really good care of yourself and be there for yourself and important others. Whether the big issue is anxiety, depression, grief, loss, trauma or relationship distress, we build the skills to reduce reactivity and move with meaning through your life.
My Background and Approach
My approach is based on the conviction that you are the agent of change in your life. And that you can learn and practice gentle skills that make a profound difference in how you relate to yourself and therefore, your whole life and the world around you. I have spent decades learning and practicing mindfulness and compassion-based skills as well as simple, grounded, body-based awareness to increase my own capacity to stay in what's hard, be intentional instead of reactive, notice moments of joy, and make my life important to me. I work from and with these skills to help clients discover and make use of their own wisdom for the composition and cultivation of their own good and meaningful life. I earned a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology (2004) and am a current doctoral student in Counseling and Human Development at the University of Rochester where I am studying community healing modalities. In the many years between ending one degree and starting another, I kept on learning.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
Although tied to no specific tradition or religion, I see this work as essentially spiritual. Spirituality is the quality of our connection with ourselves, others, and the whole world around us and it is this connection that defines most ruptures and imbalances i encounter in my office. It is not necessarily anxiety that brings people in but that the anxiety is interrupting the attempt to live fully and be present in our lives. It's not depression, it is that the depression has shrunk our lives and caused disconnection. So this work is about freeing ourselves from the life-limiting impacts of these uncomfortable states and patterns. I also believe some of the most detrimental aspects of our lives come from heart-limiting beliefs such as racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and any other ism. If you come to counseling to free your heart and mind of these specific limitations, I will work with you free of charge. The world needs your heart to be open. I will help you with that.