Psychotherapy is a very personal interaction. Your therapist gets to know a lot about you, but because of the nature of the therapeutic relationship, you don’t usually know much about that person. Since I know that I always feel more comfortable talking to someone when I have a sense of that person, let me share a little about myself.

I grew up in the Los Angeles area. I always liked going to school and learning new things, and I especially liked classes where I could interact with my fellow students. As a result, I became a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in 1976, and earned my doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology in 1985. Along the way I also accumulated several California teaching credentials as well as school counseling and administrative credentials (all formally listed below).

I know not everyone has such a good experience with school, and I have also spent time learning how to assist people who have learning difficulties, test anxiety, or whose learning styles don’t match what most teachers expect. I enjoy helping people find ways to use their personal strengths to bolster their weaker areas. This is especially useful for students who are good at music, art, drama, or sports, but who have difficulty with the more academic content classes, or who freeze when faced with an exam at any level.

I’ve also had my share of personal challenges. I was a single mom, putting myself through school while working part-time for many years. I developed a rare medical condition, lost significant people in my life, struggled with health and weight. Every tough situation has helped me become a better person and a better therapist, by giving me insight into my own strengths and vulnerabilities, and those of others.
There is an old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” My own particular approach to transforming life’s lemons is Lemon-Aid®:

• taking the lemons (and all the other things) we get
• living with them
• living through them
• finding our strengths in them
• discovering or creating something positive in them
• making something sweet from them, even in the most difficult of times.

Some of the things I do professionally are:

• conduct both individual and group counseling, dealing with many different issues, including Lemon-Aid® (medical issues), Never Diet Again®, and Transition Seminars® (career change, divorce, remarriage, and other life transitions)
• research and write about mental health matters for two other websites (I have the most recent information about a wide range of personal problems, and the most current approaches to treatment)
• provide a variety of presentations, workshops and trainings for educators, psychotherapists, and the general public
• help people develop rituals for transitions, recognition and celebration (including co-authoring The Heroic Journey: A Rite of Passage Program)
• provide training, personal therapy, and supervision of counseling hours for Marriage and Family Therapy trainees and interns in California.

Now that you know a little about me, let me know if you’d like to explore how I might be able to help you transform the lemons in your life …

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