“A Warrior is someone who strives to live alertly, intelligently, attuned to the moment in order to serve life affirming, transpersonal values.” – Jonathan Zap, author of the Zap Oracle

I believe that education is a large part of growing in life, in therapy, especially these days. Research exists, and is continuously being conducted, that helps increase our collective knowledge about how our brains, our emotions, our physiology etc. shape our experience.  There is much for all of us to learn about how to take our very powerful minds, the unlimited creative potential that resides within all of us, and train our attention and awareness towards bringing about the dreams and changes we each envision.  Western and Eastern influences help shape our growing body of knowledge.

I am delighted to be doing work that I love, that springs from a lifelong path of passion for personal growth and transformation, to which I am dedicated, both personally and professionally. The threads of my experience, insight and knowledge are woven into my own life’s journey, which in turn, I weave into my work with you. Having grappled with many of the life issues and personal transitions that cause people to seek counseling – marriage, divorce, infertility, stepfamilies, health concerns, managing conflict and reactivity, growing in self assertion while learning to speak from the heart, intuitive and spiritual development, developing business and professional success – I can genuinely say, I walk my talk! I am happy, passionate, fulfilled and have close, meaningful relationships with many people I love! This is a direct result of life long inner work that allowed me to successfully make several spiritually based, life changing transitions, with all the thought, heartache and joy that deep transformation of one’s prevailing paradigm yields.

Art, psychology, metaphysical studies, research and holistic heath have been dominant interests I have pursued and studied (taken classes whenever possible) since middle school. These later became rolled into one professional pursuit when I graduated with an MA in Clinical Holistic Health Education from the Consciousness Studies Department from JFK University in Orinda, CA in 1989.

My work journey has been quite rich, colorful and diverse! If interested, reading the following paragraphs will give you a much more detailed version of how I came to be a Marriage & Family Therapist in 1992, and a Certified Gottman Therapist in 1995.

In High School, I was both an art and psychology major. I also was studying reflexology, jewelry making and metaphysical/spiritual studies outside of school. I started baking alternative desserts for local health food stores in the Philadelphia area. This was a lot of fun, and inaugurated a life long passion for food and gourmet, yet healthy, cooking. I became a vegetarian at 15, eliminated sugar from my diet in college and went on to be a cook (in training) at the famous 5 star vegetarian restaurant, GREEN’S located in SF.

I was originally accepted into Rhode Island School of Design for my undergraduate studies, but graduated with a BA in Psychology, magna cum laude, from Alfred University in upstate New York, I changed schools at the last minute to pursue a dual degree in 3 dimensional art (as opposed to graphic design at RISD) and psychology, but fell in love with psychology. I was torn between clinical and research psychology at Alfred. Both departments were quite strong and advanced for the times. After I graduated, I took 1 ½ years off to work at Green’s and think about which direction I wanted to develop in psychology. At the time, Rogerian therapy was all the rage, where a therapist’s role is to LISTEN. I made a critical decision at that time: I wanted to be a more ACTIVE AGENT in people’s growth. This decision is a dominant emphasis in my work today.

During my 11/2 years of reflection, I graduated as a Certified Massage Therapist from the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley 1985. I worked as a CMT at The Preventive Medical Center in Marin for several years, and have had a private therapeutic massage practice, with referrals from chiropractors, up until I broke my shoulder in 2007.

During my graduate training, after moving on from Green’s, I started a vegetarian, allergy sensitive catering business. At a critical point in its growth, I had to choose between my blossoming, rapidly expanding catering business, or start my graduate studies in psychology. I chose psychology, and am glad I did!

JFK University had just started offering an MA program that combined studies in somatic, metaphysical, holistic and traditional psychology. I wanted a PhD but after seeing that Berkeley offered a social work degree, not my interest, I chose JFK – a tough decision choosing an MA vs. a PhD – but felt I couldn’t have found a more perfect blend of my many enduring interests: nutrition, somatic studies, art, consciousness and psychology! Wow! It was the best decision I ever made! Rather than feel pulled in competing directions, I came to understand health, in all it’s form, as a holistic paradigm, where mental health is both a reflection and combination of a healthy body, our being, as a unified whole. Body, emotions, mind and Spirit all are one, all inform each other and can all be accessed from different modalities.

My work today emphasizes physical health (diet, balanced hormones, exercise, support from many forms of physical therapy, such as acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, etc) as part of achieving mental, emotional and spiritual health.

One final adjunct of my professional life is coaching people who are trying to make radical dietary changes on the advice of a professional. Whether a client is following a diet for eliminating candida, balancing blood sugar, eliminating allergies, my extensive experience as an alternative gourmet cook and business owner has helped me provide practical advice for making these changes. My own experience with multiple food sensitivities and candida has had me eating a largely vegan, sugar free, gluten free diet for over 21 years.

Please click on the sites below to see my listing:

Psychology Today
Linkedin
Gottman website.