My Background
I received my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Davis in 1975 and have many successful years of engineering experience under my belt.
I was certified as a Rolfer® in 1980 by the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration and practiced that powerful and profoundly life changing bodywork discipline for years.
I found that working with people, when old and deep emotional wounds surfaced in the bodywork process, was to my liking and returned to school pursuing a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. After four years of internship and passing both the written and oral exams I was licensed as a Marriage Family Therapist in 1991.
I have worked both in private practice and in group and agency practices including: The Center for Attitudinal Healing, Marin Suicide Prevention Center, Marin Grief Counseling Program, the Pacific Process Institute, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) of Marin, and Refocus - a large group practice based on a twelve-step model in Corte Madera, CA. I have additional training and didactic education in neurofeedback, massage therapy, somatic therapies, psychodynamic psychotherapy, family systems therapy, brief strategic therapy, and others.
I completed the three year training program in Somatic Experiencing (SE) in 2010 and am certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). SE is a nervous system therapy approach developed by Dr. Peter Levine that heals trauma and accumulated stress and is one of the best tools for self-regulation that I have run into.. I studied with Dr. Levine in 1983 and from 1988-1989 as well. Currently I help train therapists in this technique as a lead teaching assistant in several trainings nationally and internationally.
After SE I trained in NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) which deals with developmental trauma and the survival strategies we had to adopt to fit into our families. I am certified as a Master NARM Therapist under Dr. Laurence Heller. I love using this work to help clients see how they got to where they are and how they can get out of those old family patterns and doublebinds so they can express their life as they choose rather than as they had to in order to survive childhood.
Additionally, I have personally participated in a great deal of therapy and bodywork and have supported my family members in doing the same. I am a great fan of personal exploration in the pursuit of wisdom and balance.
Working in body-oriented disciplines has given me a deeper understanding of the need for creating safety and trust in the therapeutic alliance and has given me greatly increased appreciation for effectively connecting with clients. It has also taught me profound ways of bypassing the defense mechanisms in order to work with people at the deep core level. Working psychologically with clients has given me an understanding of the developmental process, where it got ‘stuck’ and how to ‘unstick’ it. The body-centered work has informed my counseling practice. I also work with and honor spirituality and the non-physical. Our identity, who we hold ourselves to be, can either limit us or propel us to great heights. One of my main interests is in connection, and how our move from tribal life to nuclear families has resulted in feeling less connected to others, something which all mammals need in order to feel safe. When we are not connected enough we feel anxiety and depression. Addictions are usually attempts to not feel that anxiety and depression.
Having been married since 1976, I have have a lot of personal experience in the give and take of daily relationships in addition to lots of professional education and theory. One of my biggest areas of study over the last decade has been in trauma recovery. When we have old, unresolved traumas our nervous system is prone to jumping out of regulation at the slightest trigger. When we go into fight or flight, or freeze, we are not able to stay in healthy relationships, and we are not able enjoy the finer things in life.
