I have been in private practice for over 38 years with a specialty in facilitating bridging and healing work for individuals, couples and families in distress. I have a doctorate in clinical psychology and am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). I am also a lecturer, teacher and workshop presenter.
After my doctoral studies in 1994, I was accepted into the Institute for Imago Relationship Therapy under the direction of Dr. Harville Hendrix where I became certified as a specialist in treating couples using the Imago approach. I am a nationally trained advanced clinician conducting several couples’ workshops each year in support of helping couples replace unconscious reactivity with intentional communication. The work is centered on healing and growth, substituting connection where there has been frustration, distance, impasse and rupture.
In my early years (1972 to 1987) I worked in a medical hospital (St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Oxnard, California) where I was responsible for providing psychosocial evaluations, psychotherapy services and group therapy to patients on hemodialysis and other individuals with life threatening illness. Additionally, I was the clinical supervisor directing the selection and training of Marriage and Family Therapy interns at St. John’s Hospital.
I trained with Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross from 1974 to 1980 in the area of bereavement and death and dying. After my training, I taught “grief work” to students in the MFT graduate programs as well as medical staff within the hospital setting.