About Me - Education, Training, and Professional Experience

Office I opened my psychotherapy and counseling practice in 1998, after fifteen years teaching writing and literature at the college level with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature . In my late thirties I decided to change careers, and began this transition with a two-year period during which I worked at the UW Parenting Clinic, wrote training materials for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence (including a curriculum for the Catholic Archdiocese on sexual abuse by clergy), and volunteered with Eastside Domestic Violence Program as a crisis line worker and legal advocate.

I then entered the graduate program at the University of Washington School of Social Work, earning my MSW (Master’s in Social Work) degree in two areas: Children and Families, and Mental Health. While in graduate school I worked part-time at the Casey Family Program, writing materials about sexual orientation issues for their staff. I also did a three-month placement at the UW Center for Human Development and Disability, where I interviewed parents and participated in interdisciplinary case assessments, followed by a nine-month internship at Group Health Behavioral Health, where I had a full caseload of patients with a variety of mental health issues.

After graduate school, I opened my private psychotherapy practice and also began teaching parent education through North Seattle Community College and through the Phinney Neighborhood Association, where I helped parents of infants and toddlers with a variety of problems including child behavior, tantrums, sleep, feeding/eating, family systems issues, and sibling conflicts, and taught classes on such topics as language development, temperament, discipline strategies, emotional intelligence, and parents’ self-care.

My postgraduate training has been focused in five areas: (1) trauma, including childhood abuse and neglect, rape and other forms of sexual abuse, domestic violence and abusive relationships in adulthood; (2) attachment, infant and child development, postpartum mood disorders, adjustment to parenting; (3) personality types as based on the Enneagram, and psychological/spiritual growth using that model; (4) mindfulness and somatic practices for treating mental health issues; and (5) neurobiology.

I received postgraduate training through COR Northwest Family Development Center, the UW School of Social Work, the Trifold School of Enneagram Studies, and the EMDR International Association, as well as a variety of workshops sponsored by other continuing education organizations.

I regularly attend workshops and receive consultation and training to update and expand my therapeutic skills, my knowledge about the brain and its implications for the therapy process, and my understanding of mental health issues. (See below for a list of workshops I have attended over the past ten years.)

I am licensed in the state of Washington as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (License #W00007899). I am certified by the EMDR International Association as an EMDR Therapist. I am currently working towards teacher certification in the Enneagram as well. I am a member of the Washington Society for Clinical Social Work, the Clinical Social Work Association, and the EMDR International Association.

I bring to my work my personal experience as a parent and many years of personal experience with yoga and meditation. My lifelong leisure interests have focused on the outdoors -- hiking, backpacking, climbing, running, cycling, cross-country skiing in the woods and mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Professional Experience

When There Are No Words: EMDR for Early Trauma and Neglect (March 2010)
Somatic Resourcing (February 2010)
Imaginal Nurturing, Ego States, and Attachment (Sept. 2009)
EMDR Canada Annual Conference (May 2009)
New Frontiers in Trauma Treatment (January 2009)
The Wise Heart and the Mindful Brain: Buddha meets Neurobiology (June 2008)
Psychoanalytic and Neuroscience Perspectives on Affect (March 2008)
Treating the Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse (January 2008)
Using the Enneagram in Clinical Practice (November 2006 - October 2007)
EMDR Part 1 and 2 Training (Dec. 2006, March 2007)
The Meaning and Assessment of Crying Based on Attachment Theory and Research (October 2007)
Infant Observation (March 2004-2005)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (December 2004)
Boundary Issues, Dilemmas, and Clinical Decisions (June 2004)
Divorce and Remarriage: The Impact on Families (March 2001)
Helping Your Clients through Grief and Mourning (November 2000)
Improving Early Affect Development (March-April 2000)
Brain Structure and Affect Regulation (April 1999)
Affect Regulation: A Psychobiological Bridge from Molecule to Mind (April 1999)
Postpartum Mood Disorders (March 1999)